SoulBreak
by 3DPhantom
Summary: A Soulmate's first words aren't always the nicest. Shinichi and Kaito have to push past their first encounter to realize that they still belong together, and they subsequently have to overcome the damage those first words caused. ShinKai. First-Words Soulmate/Mark AU.
1. Chapter One: Spoken Words

**A/N: This is a First-Words Soulmate/Mark AU, but I promise it's quite different from the number of others out there. ****This story was written mostly for my own enjoyment, but I'm posting it in case I'm not the only one out there who likes sappy and kinda cliché whatevers. ^^**

 **Setting: Shinichi no shrink-e-ded in this story at any point; past or present, at least. Shinichi and Kaito are about seventeen and/or eighteen.**

 **Pairing: ShinKai (or KaiShin, but I think of Shinichi as the slightly more Seme-type). Romance _really_ isn't my thing, but this ONE pairing I'm actually kinda fond of (for some reason) so, having said that, this is my first romance-centric story EVER. Just so you're aware. I'm sorry in advance for, erm... Everything?**

 **Warnings: Rated T. Mentions of self-harm/violence, Shonen-ai, (NO Yaoi or sex, the worst it gets to is a little non-descript kissing and references), possible OOC-ness, especially due to effects the AU has had on character pasts... Yup, I think that's about it.**

 **Disclaimer : I own nothing. Except maybe some interesting add-ons to the whole Soulmate thing that I haven't seen elsewhere and that I made up. I expanded on how Soul Marks work past what I've read in other stories before. Also, the Cover Art was made by me: A higher quality version of it can be found on my DeviantArt (Username: 3DPhantom).**

 **Chapter One: Spoken Words**

Kaito's mother and father had been firm believers in Soul Marks, just as most people were. They themselves had experienced first-hand the power of Soul Marks when they met. The day that Kaito was born though, they suddenly weren't so sure.

When Chikage held her child in her arms for the first time, she cried. Because she was overjoyed by the birth of her precious son, yes, but also in sadness. She could tell by the look on her husband's face that he too was experiencing the same conflicting emotions that she was.

There, tattooed on their son's tiny left forearm, in a spot easily visible for all to see, were the first words his Soulmate would ever speak to him:

 _"What? NO! I don't want **YOU** as my Soulmate!"_

Growing up, Kaito's parents had refused to read his marks for him, and often made him wear long-sleeved shirts, provided the weather outside wasn't too stiflingly hot. They wanted to wait as long as possible before allowing their son to know what the words said, and they hated it more than anything when strangers would comment on the words. Kaito knew, even before he could read, that there must be something wrong with the words. What could be flawed in words written with such beautiful cursive and in such a stunning, vivid blue? He had no idea. He couldn't imagine the words were anything but perfect...

Kaito had asked his father on many occasions to tell him what the words said, but his father's response was always the same. With a sad smile he would say "You'll have to learn how to read them yourself, Kaito."

So, he did.

The day Kaito had finally deciphered the marks on his arm, he cried for hours. His parents were there to sooth him, telling him things like "You never know, Kaito, maybe they won't really mean it," or "Maybe it'll all work out in the end, just wait and see," and when both of these failed they would try a "You can always find someone else to love, there are plenty of great people in the world, it doesn't have to be your Soulmate you end up with."

His parents had homeschooled Kaito, agreeing not to send him to school until after he was old enough to read his own marks and understand what they meant and how people reacted to them. They sheltered him from the world for as long as possible, but eventually, he had to be allowed to go to regular school.

Growing up, Kaito faced the same dilemma on multiple occasions. At school, usually when he changed out for gym class, and at restaurants, or out and about, at grocery stores... Sometimes people would realize that he was hiding his Soul Mark. He would receive comments, sometimes even scoldings from teachers and older people, where people would say things like "It's very rude to your Soulmate to cover up your mark!" Sometimes there was even a "How dare you show such disrespect to the ancient power of Soul Marks?! Covering your marks up is sinful!"

At first Kaito would cry, and show them his marks, just to get them to stop yelling at him. Once the adult saw the marks they would instantly fall silent, and their eyes would fill with such _pity_. Kaito really hated that. He hated it even more when kids at school would tease him for covering it up, pull the bandages he used to hide the prettily-scrawled words off his arm, and then would laugh at him and ask such brazen questions as "What's so wrong with you that even your own _Soulmate_ won't want you?"

After that, Kaito stopped showing his marks to _anyone_ , regardless of the teasing or scolding he got. To deal with the results of keeping them hidden was much easier, to him, then showing them, and besides, if he kept them hidden, then he himself didn't have to look at them as often. It was bad enough when he was at home, taking a bath or getting ready for bed. Sometimes he would lay in bed for hours, reading the softly glowing blue words over and over again, wondering if there really _was_ something so wrong with him that even his own Soulmate would know at the site of him that they didn't want him. Was he ugly? Most people seemed to think he was cute, but that could always change in the future... What if he was going to grow up to be a bad person?

Eventually Kaito decided that, _no_ , it _wouldn't_ be his fault! His Soulmate must be the one with the problem, even if they had such pretty blue eyes and elegant handwriting! His Soulmate must be a horrible person, if they knew they didn't want him after having barely just met him! Kaito came to the conclusion that when he met his Soulmate, they'd be an ugly, horrible human being, and _he wouldn't want them either!_ Thinking that helped him get through life, one day at a time.

Sometimes his thoughts still regressed to the question of _'what if they're prefect and I really am the one who's not worthy of them?'_ After his father died, especially, it was hard to believe that the fates weren't punishing him for one reason or another... But he would ultimately shove such thoughts back into the deepest, darkest recesses of his mind. He'd throw on his Poker Face and pretend that he was perfect, and he told everyone he met that he was perfect, too, because it was the only way he could manage to get through it all. If his Soulmate was going to hate him, then he was committed to hating his Soulmate too, as the horrible person they no doubt would be!

But that wasn't the way things ended up being at all.

He knew that night, standing on a rooftop, his white cape billowing out behind him as it was caught in the winds of Autumn, that he really _was_ the one at fault. Somehow, now, it all made sense.

He'd read every article on Kudo Shinichi there was to read (a _lot_ of articles, honestly) because if a new detective was planning to make an appearance at his heist, he wanted to make sure he had all the facts he could possibly have. All of the facts... Except what Kudo Shinichi's Soul Mark was. The detective's mark was, apparently, located high on his right hip, and so no pictures had ever been taken of it. The detective had admitted once that he adored his mark though, and he couldn't wait to meet whomever would say those words to him. Kaito had scowled just a little bit bitterly at that because, truthfully, he was jealous, but the more he read about the detective the more he liked him, with his quick wit and snarky humor and apparent sense of justice, so by the end of his research into Kudo Shinichi he was glad that the detective would have a nice Soulmate, even if Kaito himself was doomed to be Soul-Bound to some inconsiderate jerk.

Kaito was only vaguely surprised when Kudo Shinichi managed to catch up to him on the roof, having avoided his traps and decoded his message in time. Based on his research, Kaito had already come to the conclusion that this Kudo Shinichi guy was likely going to be quite a challenging opponent.

Kaito turned around, having been standing at the edge of the roof, about to jump off. KID faced the detective and smirked, giving him a moment to finish catching his breath before speaking. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I've heard many great things about you~!" He sing-songed the last bit.

Shinichi's eyes widened and he froze. A moment later, his features twisted in a way that made Kaito very confused.

And then came the words that he'd been dreading to hear most of his life.

"What? NO! I don't want **YOU** as my Soulmate!" The twisted look on his face, Kaito realized, was disgust. With the words came an unfamiliar burning on Kaito's skin, right where the mark was, a sign Kaito had been told meant that his Soulmate had, indeed, just spoken the words of his Soul Mark to him. He was told that, for most people, the tingling, burning sensation was supposed to invoke great pleasure. It invoked a great many things in Kaito: He was ashamed to admit that hearing Shinichi speak at all sent shivers of pleasure up and down his spine, but simultaneously he was in pain, knowing that the words which had just been spoken were anything but loving and kind. He'd just been _rejected_ by his own _Soulmate._ It felt horrible! It felt…. It felt like his soul was _breaking…._

Kaito was stiff and still for a moment, trying to reign in his emotions, surprised and horrified. Because, really? The Great Detective of the East, the Modern Sherlock Holmes, a true hero who had saved numerous lives and whom Kaito had begun to admire over the course of his research on him, was the Soulmate whose words had haunted him all his life?

Kaito let out a bitter, tight laugh, trying to sound relaxed but utterly failing. "Oh, so it's _you,_ is it?" He'd wanted there to be animosity and spite in his voice, but instead there was only a sad longing and weariness. He hummed. "You know, I've been preparing to hear those words for most of my life, but somehow... I don't think I was ready for this." He forced a tight smirk onto his face.

"You... You're a _criminal!"_ Shinichi said, looking weak at the knees. "How could I feel love for a criminal? I'm a detective!" He was clearly still stunned.

Kaito nodded absently. "Yes, and I suppose it does rather make sense now. I'd always wondered... All the same, I think perhaps it'd be best if we go our separate ways. I don't much feel like playing games anymore tonight." He tossed the jewel he'd just finished stealing and checking under the moonlight Shinichi's way. The detective fumbled with it, caught off-guard, the dark blue sapphire settling in his hands.

KID turned, facing back out into the open air and twinkling city lights below them. He looked back over his shoulder at Shinichi, who was still staring at him with wide blue eyes, his left hand absent-mindedly going down to brush his own Soul Mark above his right hip. "You needn't worry," Kaito assured him, his right eye gleaming at Shinichi from behind his monocle. "I have no intention of pursuing a relationship with someone who _doesn't want me_." Again, he'd intended for the words to be biting and venomous, but he found himself choking them out instead. He didn't notice Shinichi's slight flinch. "If you'd like, we'll never have to see each other again." With that, he was off, a white specter flying briskly through the night skies. _'Fleeing,'_ Shinichi realized as the glider sped far too quickly away. KID's velocity could even be deemed reckless and entirely unsafe, but nevertheless he managed not to crash, disappearing moments later as he rounded a building in the distance.

Shinichi stood there for a while longer, one hand still holding the sapphire and the other over his Soul Mark. After a while he frowned, still angered by the fact that his Soulmate was a _criminal,_ and stormed off the roof.

Try as he might, he couldn't get the sight of KID's tight, sad smirk out of his mind. Couldn't forget the look of pain and horror that had seized the thief immediately following Shinichi's first words to him, the look quickly having smoothed away into forced laughter and smiles. And he _would never_ be able to forget the immense, pleasurable tingling that had coursed outward from his Soul Mark at KID's first words to him, the sensation haunting him and sending phantom shivers through his body well into the night.


	2. Chapter Two: Situational

**Chapter Two: Situational**

Kudo Shinichi had grown up _knowing_ that he was going to be someone great. Not just because of the fact that his parents were both well-known and successful, or because he had a sharp mind. His own Soul Mark was proof to him, and he'd desperately wanted, ever since he was little, to live up to the future reputation that his Soul Mark spoke of.

 _"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I've heard many great things about you~!"_

His mark was written in a slightly sloppy handwriting, but one that, despite its sloppiness, seemed to speak of vast amounts of energy. It also had a certain elegance to its strokes, the tail end of each one slanting towards the starting tip of the next, as if, though it wasn't in cursive, each stroke could easily be connected, one to the next, by an invisible curving line.

The color, too, was vibrant, so full of energy and life. It almost seemed to sparkle and dance under the light, a wonderful shade of indigo that Shinichi instantly fell in love with the first time he'd laid eyes upon his Soul Mark.

And the words... They promised him a future worth living for. A reputation to live up to. He would _be_ somebody. Even before they met, his Soulmate would know about him, will have heard "many great things"! Shinichi ultimately did live up to those words, gaining a reputation as a world-class detective even as a high school student. The elegance and sophistication behind the words, too, gave Shinichi hope for a Soulmate of equal intelligence to his own.

Shinichi did worry though, sometimes, about his Soul Mark, and his Soulmate, even though he'd never met them. There were a few times in his life when the vivid indigo of his mark seemed to grow duller than before, when the bright glow the words emitted grew dimmer... For the most part it was shining and beautiful and every bit as wonderful as Shinichi imagined his Soulmate would be. But some days it seemed to fade a tad bit... And for a few months, when he was about nine, the color had shifted to being that of a very dull and mellow blue and, where before the words had been so bright he could read them even in the dark, they'd dimmed to barely the light of a dying ember.

When that had happened, Shinichi had panicked. He'd heard before that when a Soulmate dies and leaves their partner behind, the partner's Soul Mark would become as gray as the eyes of a dead person and the glow of life in their mark faded away. Seeing his own mark change color so drastically over the course of a single day and become so dim, though not to a dull gray as those of the dead or to a full-out lackluster, had made him fear that his Soulmate might have died or suffered some great injury and was on the verge of death.

His parents and a specialist assured him that his Soulmate wasn't dead. The specialist was of the opinion that perhaps something bad _had_ happened and his Soulmate was depressed... Shinichi hadn't been pleased to hear that. The specialist his parents hired on Soul Marks told him that just as people's eyes could grow brighter with excitement and hazy with sleep, a Soul Mark could react in kind. If his Soulmate was depressed or had suffered a loss, his eyes, and Shinichi's Soul Mark, could reflect that by growing dimmer in color and losing their shine.

Shinichi kept this in mind as, over the course of several months, his Soul Mark showed no change. Finally, after half a year, it looked as if it was steadily growing back towards being the vibrant hue of indigo it had once been and the light it once emitted began to return. Within two years its color was once again holding steady and he could read the words again even in the dark, only occasionally dulling on what Shinichi deduced were bad days for his Soulmate and brightening on good ones. His Soul Mark never again held the same vibrancy that it once had though. Whatever had happened, Shinichi imagined it must have been pretty bad, and he vowed that one day, when he met his Soulmate, he would do everything in his power to get it back to the vivid shade of luminescent indigo it had once been.

After he met the Kaitou KID, his mark almost disappeared.

Shinichi had gone home that night after returning the jewel, thoughts racing through his mind. How could his Soulmate, the one he'd fantasized about for so long, be a _criminal?!_ Shouldn't his Soulmate at least respect the law, something which Shinichi himself valued above almost all else?! How much could they really get along if his Soulmate wouldn't even do that?

For a while Shinichi sat on his bed, just thinking numbly. It finally occurred to him that, in reality, he didn't know much about KID. He'd been invited to the heist by his childhood friend Ran's best friend, Sonoko, and he'd only been vaguely interested in it at first. When he saw the notice he became much more intrigued, but he still hadn't bothered to actually do research on the Kaitou KID.

Shinichi grabbed his laptop and carried it over to his bed. He searched a few things, reading whatever he could find... It wasn't much to go on. The Kaitou KID was an enigma. Nobody knew who he really was, or how old he was. Shinichi managed to deduce by what little he found that the current KID was, in fact, KID the Second, not the original KID that disappeared eight years ago, so there was still hope that his Soulmate wasn't some old man.

Shinichi was also reminded of the fact that KID never kept anything that he stole, which meant that his motives were unknown, at best, and speculative, at worst. Some people (particularly one Inspector Nakamori, head of the Kaitou KID Task Force), seemed to think that he did it all for fun. Something about that didn't sit quite right with Shinichi.

By the time he'd researched everything he could on KID, it was nearly six in the morning. Shinichi sighed and closed his laptop, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. He glanced to his side and spotted the full-body length mirror on his closet door. He walked over to it, flipping on a light atop his bedside table as he went, and lifted his shirt, looking down at the words on his torso as he had many times before.

His heart nearly stopped beating.

They'd never gotten back to the hue they had been before Shinichi was nine and some tragedy had supposedly stricken his Soulmate, but now the words on his skin were an even duller, nearly gray color, more faded than they had been that night eight years ago, and suddenly something clicked.

It was about eight years ago that the color of his Soul Mark had faded, and the original Kaitou KID disappeared eight years ago as well. Many people had speculated at the time that KID had died... Knowing now what he did, Shinichi couldn't help but wonder if the two events had anything to do with each other. Chances were high, actually, that they did, given who he now knew his Soulmate to be.

So maybe being KID was something personal and important to his Soulmate, and even if it wasn't, Shinichi was now reminded of the fact that his Soulmate had seen some hardships in life which had permanently affected him. Even if his Soulmate was a criminal, and if he did it just for fun and not some grander reason, his heists never hurt anyone. So, Shinichi could look past this one possible flaw, couldn't he? KID didn't seem like an altogether bad person. Quite the opposite, in fact. He was charming, and as Shinichi had known his whole life, even his first words to the detective had been kind and respectful and maybe even admiring.

And Shinichi had responded by saying that he _didn't want him_. The memory of his own words and the faded color of the words across his hip suddenly had Shinichi feeling sick. His Soulmate was out there suffering, possibly due to him, _probably_ because of him, maybe even _dying_ if the still fading color was anything to go by, and for what? Because Shinichi had been surprised to find out that his Soulmate was a criminal?

Shinichi frowned, a look of hard determination settling on his features as he tugged the bottom hem of his shirt back down. He'd met Hakuba Saguru thrice before, and based on the articles he'd just read, the half-British detective seemed to think he might know the true identity of the Kaitou KID, though he wouldn't say anything more without some form of evidence or proof.

Shinichi searched his contacts on his phone as he exited his house, starting at a brisk walking pace towards the nearest train station. He found Hakuba's number saved amongst his contacts and pressed the call button.

He had to call a few times. Possibly, he belatedly realized, because it wasn't yet even six-thirty in the morning on a Sunday after a KID heist (meaning that Hakuba had no doubt been up most of the night too), but eventually the call went through. "Hakuba-kun?"

The blond on the other end of the line replied in the affirmative. "It's good to hear from you, Kudo-kun, though I must say that I wasn't expecting a call from you. Does this have something to do with you storming off after the KID heist last night?"

Shinichi didn't respond at first. How much should he say? Surely, he couldn't just come out and say that he and KID were Soulmates, especially not if Shinichi ever wanted to be involved with KID, seeing as the thief obviously had to have a day-time persona. "I... Well, yes. Something like that. Listen, Hakuba, I'm really sorry to ask this, but I'd appreciate any information you have on KID. You have a suspect, right? What's his name? Where does he live?"

Hakuba seemed to consider. "I'd really like to help, Kudo-kun, but I do have my concerns..." Hakuba was too polite to say it, but Shinichi knew what he was thinking. _'If I share this information with you, Kudo, will you use it to swoop in and catch KID before me, thus claiming the glory and right to say you caught him that I've been working on for so long?'_ Detectives didn't always work together, after all, and it had happened in the past; one detective stealing the right to claim they'd solved the case from another detective using the swindled detective's own information. Shinichi had never done that though and didn't plan to ever do something so dishonorable either. He wasn't in it for the fame, after all. He didn't care who got credit as long as the criminal was always caught in the end...

Except for today. Today, he thought it best to let the criminal go free, so... "I promise, Hakuba-kun, I'm not looking to steal the KID case from you. I just _really_ need to find him, to talk to him. Please, it's important."

Hakuba considered again before sighing into the phone. "Alright, Kudo-kun. My suspect, of whom I have no evidence against, is a boy who goes by the name of Kuroba Kaito." Shinichi shivered upon hearing the name. "He's a young magician, and his father as well was a world-class magician until his death in a magic accident eight years ago." Shinichi almost stopped at that, his face twisting as more pieces to the puzzle fell into place. He forced himself to keep moving though, if only because he could see the train station up ahead now and he desperately wanted to find his Soulmate as quickly as possible. Checking the street around him and finding it devoid of life, he lifted his shirt and glanced down at his Soul Mark again, concerned to see that it was still steadily and slowly fading in coloration. He quickened his pace. "He lives in Ekoda and attends Ekoda High School, where in which I have myself been attending school for the purpose of keeping an eye on him. I can text you his address and phone number if you'd like," Hakuba added as he heard a train horn over the line, deducing that Shinichi must already be at a train station waiting to catch a train to Ekoda. Whatever the problem was, the half-Brit figured it must be pretty serious for Kudo Shinichi to be catching a train at six-thirty in the morning.

"Yes, please. Thank you, Hakuba-kun. I owe you big time. I mean it."

Hakuba gave a polite sound of dismissal. "It's fine, Kudo-kun. As long as I don't read in the papers tomorrow that you've captured the Kaitou KID. You'd come to me before making an arrest, wouldn't you?" _'Especially since my information will have led to it'_ went unsaid.

"Of course," Shinichi instantly promised, having no intention of arresting KID... Or Kuroba Kaito.

They said their final pleasantries and Shinichi hung up as he stepped onto the train to Ekoda. A few minutes later he received a text with a phone number and address. He called the number. Once, twice, three, ten times. No answer at any point.

 _'He's fine. He's just sleeping. He had a heist last night, he's tired. He's just asleep...'_ Shinichi didn't believe his own thoughts for a second. If the dull purple words on his skin were anything to go by, only a few shades away from being a pale gray, barely still glowing when he shielded them from the light around him, then everything was most definitely _not okay_.

Shinichi spent his time on the train looking up directions to the Kuroba household on his phone, memorizing the fastest rout there from the Ekoda train station, pausing intermitenly to call his Soulmate's number again without success. As soon as the doors to the train opened, he was shooting out like a bullet, racing as fast as he could through the streets. It was several long minutes before he made it to his destination, panting hard from exertion and thankful that he was a sports star and, thus, a quick runner.

He rang the doorbell a few times before trying to catch his breath. When there was no answer for ten seconds, he rang it again, this time also knocking on the door.

 _'What am I doing? My Soul Mark is evidence to suggest he could be in trouble. I should just go in!'_ He hesitated only a moment longer, wondering if a Soul Mark's fading was enough evidence to claim probable cause or if this was technically breaking and entering, before deciding that he didn't care and shoving the door open. It was unlocked (cocky thief), and Shinichi stormed inside, pausing very briefly to take off his shoes.

"Kuroba?" He called to the quiet home. Nothing was out of place, so far as he could tell... He would have begun searching the rooms, but something pulled him towards the stairs. Standard police search patterns would have suggested he start with all the rooms on the bottom floor, but his very soul seemed to be calling him upwards. He'd heard that Soulmates were naturally drawn to each other after their initial meeting, so he followed his intuition, going straight for a bedroom down the upstairs hallway. "Kuroba-kun?" When there was no answer, he opened the door.

 **A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews this story has already generated, and I hope you enjoyed the** **chapter! (=^ω^=)ノ**


	3. Chapter Three: Improvement

**Chapter Three: Improvement**

 **A/N: As promised, here's another update! This story's gotten much more attention than I thought it would, especially since I really only wrote this story for my own entertainment, but I'm loving all the reviews so-far, so thank you again to all my readers and reviewers!**

Shinichi had seen many gruesome sights in his life. Violent murders, murder attempts, kidnappings gone wrong... He himself had been on the receiving end of violence once or twice, when he'd confronted the suspect on a whim or without proper back-up. But the sight which greeted him then would forever be one of the most horrifying he'd ever be able to recall.

There was a lot of blood. Not more-so than a usual murder case, but a substantial amount. It wasn't the volume of it that worried him so much, but rather who the blood belonged to. Laying slack-bodied in the center of the floor was a young, terribly pale boy of about Shinichi's age. His hair was a messy mop of brown atop his head that hung down into his face and covered his eyes. His limbs were resting beside him as he lay on his right side, blood still soaking into the white carpet before him. Shinichi was moving before he could even think, his fingers searching desperately for a pulse on the other boy's porcelain neck. He cried in relief when his fingers found a faint pulse, sluggish and weak, but still there. He pulled out his phone with numb attention and dialed for an ambulance. He reported the address and state of the patient before promptly hanging up, not needing an operator to stay on the line with him.

Once the call had been made in fast haste, he searched his Soulmate for the bleeding injury. He found it rather quickly, using his instincts on the location of wounds and based on blood flow around them, locating the source of the bleeding. Kaito's left forearm was a mess of jagged cuts; Shinichi noted the knife sitting just next to his Soulmate's right hand with stunned horror. Had his Soulmate tried to _kill himself_ because of what he'd said...? The thought was almost enough to make Shinichi pass out, but he forced himself to stay awake and focus. He needed to stop the blood which was still trickling to the floor.

Shinichi stood and grabbed a towel from the bathroom in the hall, returning quickly and moving to hold it against the wounds on Kaito's arm. He paused when he noticed a shimmer of blue.

 _"What? NO! I don't want **YOU** as my Soulmate!"_ Shinichi knew that Soul Marks were something magical, and that even through damaged skin and blood, they would show through. Some people in the world had their marks on their head, under their hair, yet the marks would show on their hairs as if they were a projection of light. Seeing the words glowing over the red blood on his Soulmate's arm now made Shinichi's insides churn as he realized that, no, Kaito likely _hadn't_ been aiming to kill himself. As intelligent as he was, he probably could have come up with a much better way than slitting his own wrist, especially since people rarely died of a slit wrist, provided they received medical attention, and it often took hours to bleed out from an injury like that. What Kaito _had_ been trying to do, most likely, was cut his Soul Mark off of his own skin with a blade.

Shinichi pressed over the wound with the towel he'd grabbed and turned his eyes to his Soulmate's face. Dry tear tracks left red marks down the other boy's pale cheeks, and Shinichi flinched. Standing on that rooftop last night, Shinichi had seen KID as something larger than life, his white silhouette stark against the dark night sky, positively glowing under the light of the full moon hanging above them. He'd been a criminal, a con artist, confident and graceful and powerful. To see him now as a heartbroken, shivering, half-dead form on the floor, and to realize that _he_ had done this to him, once again threatened to send Shinichi into unconsciousness as his stomach twisted with guilt.

When the ambulance finally arrived and loaded Kaito up, Shinichi had asked if he could ride with them. The medics asked if he was family, a relative, or anything like that, or else they couldn't let him in. He'd pulled up his shirt to reveal the faded words on his side and that'd been enough to get him a ride to the hospital, his hands firmly clasping Kaito's right one as the medics worked around them.

 **….**

When Kaito had gotten home from the heist that night, he'd changed out of his KID attire on autopilot. He ultimately found himself laying on his bed, dressed in a pair of black cotton pants and a pale gray T-shirt, staring blankly up at his ceiling. He rolled onto his side after a time, his eyes landing on the words written in pretty cursive along his left forearm. His eyes lingered towards four words in particular. _"I don't want you."_

And, well, really, of course the great Kudo Shinichi wouldn't want the _Kaitou KID_ as his Soulmate. Shinichi was amazing, in Kaito's mind. He was perfect, so... So Kaito really couldn't blame him. What detective would want to be with a criminal anyway?

Kaito found that he couldn't bring himself to hate Shinichi for what had happened... But he _did_ hate those accursed words on his skin, a sharp blue reminder of what he loved but couldn't have. Without really thinking about it, Kaito went down to his kitchen and grabbed a knife before going back up to his room. He stood in the middle of his bedroom, not bothering to sit back down as he turned on the lights and drew the curtains.

Kaito had always avoided reading about Soul Marks. He didn't like hearing stories about them, didn't like thinking about them, because it reminded him of his own horrible markings. Having said that, he didn't know much about how they worked, but he'd always vaguely wondered if one could be cut off or marred past the point of recognition. He never actually tried it because he thought he should at least meet his Soulmate before giving it a try. And met him he had, so... Kaito lifted the knife in his right hand and began making long horizontal cuts, down from an inch below his inner elbow where the words started to within an inch of his wrist, where they ended. He could still feel the uncomfortable burn that lingered from when Shinichi had spoken those words to him, but he was pleased when the burn and sting of the cuts began to overpower the tingling of the spoken words. _'Maybe this will actually work...'_

He had no such luck.

After a while, when the blood began to cover his arm more thoroughly like a velvet curtain, Kaito realized that the words shouldn't be visible anymore, but there they still were, azure and glowing and elegant and wonderful and horrible all at the same time. Frustrated, Kaito cut deeper, poking at the words, unable to see exactly how much damage was being done through the blood and his tear-filled vision. It was just like a tattoo on his skin, according to people he'd heard discussing them. Surely it could be cut off.

Kaito's sight grew a bit blurry around the edges of his field of vision, but he didn't notice, still focusing intently on the blue words front-and-center in his line of sight, letting out a frustrated growl. When black spots began to dance in his eyes, obscuring bits of his eyesight, at first, he thought the words were finally going away. When his legs grew weak enough that he found himself sitting on the floor, not remembering having fallen, he pulled the knife away from the words.

Maybe... Maybe he should stop for now. Kaito frowned and went to stand. His vision blacked out again, and the next time color swam into his view, he realized he was laying on the floor. He was on his right side, his hands loose in front of him, the knife a few inches away. He could see the white walls of his ceiling and the floor past red blood. White porcelain skin at his fingertips where the color had been drained from them and poured out onto the floor... And blue. He could still see a soft, glowing blue.

He almost smiled. _'Ah, well. I guess I can't get rid of it after all.'_ He actually wasn't sure if he was happy about that or not.

It didn't once occur to him that he was dying as his dulled indigo eyes fluttered shut and he fell back into unconsciousness, his phone buzzing up on his nightstand as somebody called him.

 **….**

A continuous beeping sounded somewhere off to the side, seemingly intent on waking Kaito up. He wanted it to shut up, stop hurting his head, and let him sleep, but the monotonous beeping didn't heed his wishes. Kaito groaned softly, frustrated by the noise, and something moved. It was the movement and tightening of hands that alerted him to the fact that someone was holding his right hand in their own fingers.

But who? Kaito didn't remember much...

"Kuroba-kun? Hey, K-Kaito? You okay?" Whoever it was sounded worried... And sounded like an angel, Kaito thought with some amusement. He kinda wished they would say his name again, because his name sounded _heavenly_ on their tongue. Kaito also didn't want them to sound so worried though, so he tried to figure out what was causing this angelic person's concern. He realized after a moment that maybe it was the way Kaito's own brow was crumpled in slight distress. Was this person worried about _him?_

Confused and wanting answers, Kaito worked desperately on prying his eyes open. It took much longer than he thought it should... Had it always taken so long...? But eventually he managed to get them open.

At first all he saw was white. White, and then a bit of very dark brown as someone's soft-looking hair came into view, and then vivid blue. The same vivid blue which haunted his dreams and made him squirm. The same blue that the words on his arm were written in, unmistakable to him, sharp and intelligent-looking.

Kaito blinked to see if the blue would leave, but it didn't. He belatedly realized that the blue wasn't on his arm, but rather in a pair of eyes which peered down at him in a mixture of concern and relief. And something else that Kaito's drug-hazed mind recognized as love, and that he would have been in denial over if he'd had a clear enough mind to realize who the eyes belonged to.

As it was, all he could do was voice his current thoughts one-at-a-time, starting with: "You have beautiful eyes."

The eyes blinked in surprise, and some of the worry eased from them. Kaito was glad to see it go as the eyes softened and smiled. "Do you _always_ say nice things?" There was that endearing voice again.

"I wouldn't dream of saying something rude to an angel," Kaito responded easily. He forced himself to try and look at more than just the eyes, taking in now the whole face of the person above him, the hair and the features and everything, his mind clearing enough to take in the bigger picture but not enough yet to place where he'd seen it before, other than perhaps in a mirror.

The man above him creased his brow, a look not of worry this time, but resentment crossing his face, and Kaito's heart nearly stopped when he thought that perhaps the resentment was directed at him. Despite thinking that his heart had skipped a few beats in horror, the monitor next to Kaito seemed to disagree, the beeps speeding up a bit as Kaito's own features turned downwards into a frown. Why is this angelic man looking at him like that?

"I'm no angel," the man finally spoke, pulling away a bit. Kaito instantly held the man's hands tighter, not knowing who he was and not liking the look on his face, but wanting the blue-eyed boy to stay all the same. The only thing worse than seeing that disgusted look on the other's face was not seeing him at all, Kaito imagined.

And still drugged as he was, Kaito decided to say as much.

"The only thing worse than seeing that look of disgust on your face would be not seeing you at all. So, even if you don't like me, if you're going to keep looking at me like that, just, don't go anywhere, okay? Please?"

The blue eyes softened again, a small smile creeping onto the other person's face, a look of distress almost overtaking the smile. "I don't _not_ like you." Kaito's fuzzy mind couldn't make sense of that _at all,_ and it showed on his face, so the other person continued for clarification. "I like you. I like you a lot. So... Hurry up and get better so I can properly tell you how sorry I am and how much I like you... Okay?"

Kaito tried to form a response, but his eyes were already drifting closed. He wanted to force them to stay open, but he just didn't seem capable of managing it. He nodded weakly, the only thing he could do, as his eyes slid shut and sleep began to take him again. He barely registered the soft brush of lips on his forehead sending an easy calmness through him as he drifted off.

 **A/N:** **Reviews appreciated. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. ^^**


	4. Chapter Four: Proper Introductions

**Chapter Four: Proper Introductions**

The next time Kaito awoke, he remembered everything. He remembered the heist, the knife, falling unconscious in his room, and waking up in the hospital to have a short chat with Kudo Shinichi before falling asleep again.

Kaito bolted upright upon remembering that Kudo had been in his hospital room, his eyes snapping to his right. Still-dulled and slightly panicked indigo orbs met intelligent and concerned blue ones, Shinichi instantly standing from his chair and stepping closer to Kaito, his grip on Kaito's right hand tightening.

"Hey, are you okay? Does it hurt? Do you need anything?" He seemed highly worried about the magician, and Kaito had to rack his brain to figure out why. It took a little bit for him to remember Shinichi's last words to him.

"You..." Kaito swallowed and tried again as the words caught in his throat. "You... Don't _not_ like me?" He asked quietly, his shoulders tense. Shinichi could tell that Kaito was preparing himself to face rejection again and frowned.

Shinichi looked down, sadness and shame written all over his face. He slowly positioned himself so that he was sitting on the bed next to Kaito. "I like you," he assured, feeling that it was most important to reassure his Soulmate before going on. "And I don't plan on turning you in to the police, either." He smiled a little. "I know I said something really horrible to you, but, if you'll still have me, I want you to be _mine,_ which you can't be if you're _theirs_ and in a jail cell, so..." He trailed off and looked over at Kaito's bandaged left arm. "How's it feel?"

Kaito glanced over for a moment, quickly pulling his eyes back to Shinichi. "Fine," he said quietly, still too scared to say much or to speak loudly, as if the moment was nothing but an illusion that could be shattered and taken away from him.

Shinichi nodded. "Good." He took a deep breath. "Then, I have something I've gotta say to you."

Kaito nodded stiffly, preparing for the worst.

Shinichi turned to face him more thoroughly before beginning. "My name is Kudo Shinichi. I'm a detective, and I enjoy playing football and the violin. I've been told that I'm exceptionally good at all three things. My favorite book series is the Sherlock Holmes collection and I've read it a hundred and twenty-nine times. I'm _not_ a morning person, so unless I've been up all night, I won't be good for _anything_ before eleven o'clock, but I'll be better if I've had a cup of coffee or three." Kaito looked confused, but Shinichi continued without pause. "I'm a great detective with a very keen mind; I'm intelligent, but sometimes I can be really dense too. Dead bodies sometimes literally fall at my feet, because I seem to be cursed and bodies spring up everywhere I go. It's unlikely that a single date with me will ever go uninterrupted by some murder, kidnapping, bomb threat, or some other tragedy, because my luck is really, really bad in that regard. But it's balanced out by how lucky I am in life, to have such great parents, and friends," Shinichi lifted Kaito's right hand and kissed the back of it softly, making Kaito blush, "and the most magical Soulmate, who gave me the most wonderful Soul Mark."

Shinichi's smile faded a little. "I'm usually overly polite with people when I first meet them, and I warm up to them over time. I have a strong sense of justice, and a tendency to get myself into trouble. For the most part, I used to think really highly of myself. I might even have thought that I was the greatest person alive from time to time, though I always quickly realized that there's probably at least one person out there better than me." Shinichi's smile completely dropped off his face at this point. "And then I met my Soulmate, and I said something really, really horrible to him. I caused him a lot of strife, and pain, and in the end..." Shinichi trailed off and took a rattling breath, his voice coming out in barely more than a whisper. "In the end you almost died because of me, and I've never regretted anything more in my life then saying those words to you. It's unforgivable, I know, and there's nothing I can do to change those words on your arm, but if you'll still have me... You can take as much time as you want to think about it... But if you'll still have me, I promise I'll spend every day for the rest of my life proving to you just how false those words are, and how much I don't mean them."

He looked up to meet Kaito's eyes, his blue orbs glistening ever-so-slightly with tears. "I used to think I was the greatest person in the world, but I'll never, ever think that again. Not just because of what I said, but also because I met you. And I think you're much, much better than me. I've thought the world of you, since the very first time I saw my Soul Mark, and I might not know you very well yet, and there's a lot I need to learn, and there's a million apologies I need to make, but I can feel it, right down to my soul. _I love you._ "

Kaito felt something burn on his left arm, likely the pain medication starting to wear off, but he promptly ignored it. Instead he searched Shinichi's eyes, trying to read everything he could, and Shinichi didn't even attempt to hide his thoughts. Kaito could see that the detective wanted nothing more than to be able to change the words he'd given Kaito, and he could see that Shinichi meant every word he'd said.

Kaito couldn't stop a smile from finding its way onto his face. "I'm... Kuroba Kaito. Magician extraordinaire." He lifted his right hand, pulling it from Shinichi's grasp (which Shinichi looked like he wanted to protest) and produced a single blue rose. Shinichi gaped at it because, what? _How? He'd just been holding that hand!_ He took it with wonder shining in his eyes. "I'm too guarded, and maybe too much of a coward, to spill all of my secrets like the way you just did. Your detective skills will probably make you the only person who can read me, actually. I play everything close to the vest, so it's really okay if you don't know me yet. Even the people who have known me my whole life don't really know me most of the time." His smile didn't fade, but Shinichi thought he could see a glimmer of sadness behind it. "I'll try to tell you what I can though. Starting, I guess, with the fact that I love chocolate ice cream. And chocolate in general, I suppose. And just about anything sweet."

Shinichi laughed a little.

"I own thirty-two doves, so if you ever want to make it work with me, you're going to have to find a way to like birds."

"Not a problem," Shinichi assured. Kaito nodded before continuing.

"I can't ice-skate. I can hang-glide and preform gymnastics on tightropes, I walk up-side-down on my hands almost as efficiently as I can walk upright and, heck, I can skate up the railing of a stairwell on rocket-powered roller-skates, I've _done that,_ but I can't ice-skate to save my life."

Shinichi looked surprised. "Then it's a good thing I have enough ice-skating talent for the both of us. I'd enjoy teaching you, if that's something you're interested in." Kaito smirked and nodded.

"I pull pranks. On _everyone._ Teachers, the principal at my school, friends, enemies. I have no restraint. It's not that I don't respect authority, I don't think. I just..." He paused. Shinichi, sensing his hesitation, picked his right hand back up and squeezed it.

"It's alright. You don't have to share everything all at once. Some people have more secrets than others, and I'd especially understand if you didn't want to share them with _me,_ after what I've done to you..."

Kaito frowned at that. Because, honestly, this was his **_Soulmate_** and he _wanted Kaito,_ despite his initial words. And Kaito couldn't _stand_ that look on Shinichi's face that spoke of guilt and self-loathing, so he mustered up his courage and decided to spill his secrets.

"Pulling pranks on people is an easy way to get them to leave me alone and not look too closely at me." Shinichi's eyes widened. "I'm overly energetic and smiley. All the time. Especially when I'm excited and when I'm depressed, and I don't know if you'll be able to tell the difference or not because nobody has ever tried."

Well that was... Sad. Shinichi frowned, not liking that thought. "You just... Hide all of your feelings behind a smile?"

Kaito averted his gaze. "I've... Never told anyone that, especially not in so many words, but... Yes?"

Shinichi nodded and smiled at him. "Well, thank you for telling me. I want to know what you're thinking and feeling, if you're okay with that."

Kaito blushed and nodded before continuing. "People will get mad at me though. They'll probably get mad at you too, by extension, though I promise to do everything I can to prevent that from happening. I don't want people looking down on you just because you associate with a troublemaker like me."

"Other people don't matter if they're going to look down on you," Shinichi said resolutely. "I'll make sure everyone knows it too."

Kaito smiled. "I've been told I'm insufferable. I hardly sleep, and I don't make a habit of drinking coffee, but I still have boundless energy twenty-four-seven."

"Should be interesting."

"I'm a vegetarian."

Shinichi blinked, surprised. "Wow, really? That's kind of neat, I think. What are your reasons? Or do you not really have any?"

"I _always_ have reasons for _everything_ I do, even if it doesn't seem like it, or if you don't know what those reasons are, or if they don't make sense to you. I always have reasons, and they make sense to me, possibly because I might be a bit insane." Kaito gave him a slightly mad, Cheshire grin as if to prove his point. "As for why I'm a vegetarian: I really just don't like the thought of eating most living things other than plants. I know plants don't feel pain, but I can't say the same for a lot of other animals. Plus meat is just kinda gross. I don't know why people find cooked animal flesh and blood appetizing. And some people eat it raw…. I don't want to judge other people's habits and preferences, but to me personally that's just _ew._ Anyway…. I've owned birds all my life, so obviously I would never eat a bird. They're all relatives to my doves in my mind. And did you know that pigs are smarter than dogs? I'd feel bad if I ate pork. Lobsters are capable, theoretically, of living forever if they aren't killed by one event or another because they don't suffer from old age and can pretty much keep growing bigger forever if they have enough room and food supply. Who'd want to eat a creature as amazing as that? Octopuses are smart too. They can solve puzzles and open jars and everything, and I always thought it was really cool how they can squeeze through tiny holes because of their lack of vertebra."

Shinichi's eyes were wide as saucers by this point because, wow. Just, _wow._ Yes, he'd known all of those things, and morally they _could_ give him hang-ups over eating those creatures, but it took a really caring and dedicated person to swear off so many foods based on moral and emotional thought processes such as the ones going through Kaito's mind. Feeling bad about eating animals and actually committing to not eat them were two wildly different things. Was Kaito really _that_ pacifistic? It was…. Kind of amazing.

"How do you get your protein? You're in top physical condition, so I assume you get it one way or another."

"Nuts, for one, are very high in protein. There are a lot of supplements available on the market to help people like myself receive proper dietary nutrients without the consumption of meat. I drink a protein shake every morning for breakfast on the way to school... And eat a banana, but that's beside the point. Plus, there are a couple of exceptions I make when it comes to being a vegetarian, since I'm not avoiding meat for the specific purpose of being able to call myself a vegetarian. I do eat crab and squid."

"Not fish?"

Kaito visibly flinched and Shinichi frowned in concern and confusion. "I'm…. I actually have Ichthyophobia, so, no. I don't eat…. _Those things."_ Kaito stopped and looked at Shinichi, forcing a smile that Shinichi could instantly tell was fake. "You can go on ahead and laugh now."

Shinichi instantly shook his head. "It's quirky, but I'm not gonna _laugh_ at you. There's nothing wrong with that. And, based on what you were saying earlier, I'm sure you have your reasons." Shinichi smiled at him, Kaito easily returning it, this time relaxed and genuine.

"I'm incredibly lucky, so maybe my good luck will cancel out your bad luck on dates." Shinichi snorted. "I mean it. Even when I get into trouble, something always happens _just_ in the nick of time that saves me from getting arrested or killed. One time a sudden storm blew in that wasn't in that night's forecast while I was gliding a thousand feet in the air and within seconds it started _hailing._ I may be a magical phantom, but even I'm no match for Mother Nature. I didn't have time to look for a place to land or try to change my trajectory before my glider started resembling Swiss Cheese more than cloth." Shinichi looked horrified and Kaito laughed. "Don't worry: I got out without a scratch. I was wet, but not injured. I just so happened to land in a pool on the top floor of the building below me. Lucky, yeah?"

"Not really, no. The fact that a sudden and unpredicted hail storm pulled you out of the sky at all sounds like the opposite of good luck to me."

"Err, well, yes…. You might be right about that…. So maybe murder attempts will still be made but the victims will survive more often?"

"Sure, maybe…." Shinichi still looked concerned, so Kaito pressed on in an attempt to change the subject. What could he say that would effectively distract Shinichi?

"I'm male, if you haven't noticed. That doesn't bother you?" Because Shinichi might have had a knee-jerk rejection response to finding out they were Soulmates for more reasons than just because he was a criminal, right?

Shinichi instantly seemed to move off of the previous topic, latching onto this new one. The detective looked startled. "Does it bother _you?"_

 _"Hell_ no. We're Soulmates, aren't we? So, what's it matter what gender you are? But…. If it bothers you, and if it'd make you feel better or make it easier for you to introduce me to people you know…. If it'd make it easier for you to love me…. I am capable of cross-dressing flawlessly, to the point that no one but us two would even know I'm a guy, so…."

Shinichi looked, once again, horrified, though in a different way from the previous time. **_"No._** That's a horrible thought, so please never think it again." Shinichi said, dead serious. "I don't want you to change yourself or to pretend to be something that you aren't just to try and please me. I don't care what gender you are." With a soft smile gracing his features, Shinichi added: "I'd love you equally as much any which way."

Kaito smiled, relieved. He was starting to think that maybe Shinichi really meant it when he said that he loved him, but there was really only one way to find out.

"…. I'm a criminal." Kaito said, this time without a smile on his face. Shinichi stopped smiling too. "I'm an _international_ criminal. Top-tier. A phantom thief. I _know_ that bothers you."

But Shinichi shook his head. "No. It _did_ bother me. But then I realized that you never actually hurt anyone, and you return what you steal, and after what happened, I can't even _think_ of holding it against you." Shinichi smiled lightly. "And you always have your reasons." Kaito chuckled, but quickly returned to his more serious state.

"About those reasons…." Shinichi was his Soulmate, whom loved him, and who held nothing back. Kaito wanted desperately to share his secrets with his other half, and could only hope that it wouldn't end badly for him. At this point, if Shinichi wanted to have him arrested he could, their Soul Marks being more than enough proof of Kaito's identity, so he had to trust Shinichi anyway. He may as well go all-out, and Shinichi deserved to know what _dangers_ he'd be getting himself into if he pursued their relationship. "I'm not the original Kaitou KID."

"I'd figured as much."

"My dad was the original KID."

"I thought that might be the case too."

"He was murdered."

Shinichi didn't say anything. He... Hadn't known that.

"He was murdered, and the people who killed him are dangerous, and I became the Kaitou KID to draw them out. To get information about them and bring them down. I can't stop until I've completed my goals. It's possible that several nights a month for the next who-knows-how-long I'll be at heists, and when I'm not at heists, it takes a lot of time to plan them and get ready, and to train and hone my skills. And if the people I'm after ever find out my identity they could come after you. I could get caught and end up in jail, but honestly, that's nothing compared to what would happen if _They_ knew who I am. You could be in danger. The people you care about too. They could kill you, anyone, just because they feel like it. They wouldn't hesitate."

Kaito's voice was dead serious, and now Shinichi really _was_ worried. "They'd kill?"

"Have killed," Kaito confirmed.

"People I care about?" Kaito nodded, his expression dark and serious, and Shinichi couldn't help but think that it didn't look right on Kaito's face. "People like you?"

Kaito's brow knitted closer together. "Well, yeah, maybe, I guess. They haven't so-far though, and not for lack of trying." He said this in a slightly joking manner, a smile on his face, but Shinichi did **not** find it funny.

"They've tried to _kill you?!"_ Kaito shushed him and both of them looked to the door, Shinichi suddenly remembering that they were in a hospital and could be overheard if Shinichi wasn't quiet. Luckily though, no one came to the door or seemed to have heard anything, and it was still just the two of them in the room.

Kaito sighed a little in relief before turning back to Shinichi. "Yeah, of course they have. Tried to kill KID, mind you, not Kuroba Kaito. They seem to be under the impression that I'm my dad and he somehow survived eight years ago. They don't know it's me... I think... It's possible they'll make the connection any day though if any of them stop to wonder about the fact that Kuroba Toichi had a son. If they look into what I've been up to, they'll realize I'm a magician too, and they might figure out who I am. Even without proof, if they just have a _feeling_ that I might be KID, they won't hesitate to kill me or anyone I might have told about them. Like my Soulmate, for example, and the people I care about, and the people my Soulmate cares about, and anyone else they happen to meet along the way."

Shinichi looked angry. He hummed. "You're right. I _don't_ like that. I don't like that _at all_." His hold on Kaito's hand tightened before suddenly he was moving closer. He pressed his side up next to Kaito's and before Kaito knew it, he was suddenly sitting comfortably in Shinichi's lap, his Soulmate's arms wrapping around his torso in a protective embrace as Shinichi's nose nuzzled the spot where Kaito's neck met his shoulder, sending shivers down Kaito's spine. "Something will definitely have to be done about this. _Lucky_ for you, your Soulmate is an ace detective." Kaito could feel Shinichi's smirk as he brushed his lips against Kaito's skin, making Kaito blush and heat spread where their skin made contact. "I have a lot of connections in the police. Everything will have to be kept really on the down-low, of course, but I'm _sure_ I can do _something_ to help. These people are murderers; they have to be stopped. I'd be honored if you let me help you with it. It might just be the most important case of my life, especially if your life hangs in the balance. What do you say?"

Unable to form words due to the sudden close proximity, Kaito could only nod.

"Good. Anything else?" Shinichi asked.

"I love you too," Kaito said without hesitation. "Right down to my soul."

Shinichi's smile grew wider. "Very good. I don't think I could have taken it if you'd said you didn't want me." His smile faltered. "I'm still really, really sorry about that. I should _never_ have even _thought_ such a thing."

Kaito shrugged. "If you say you don't mean it-"

 _"I don't."_

"-then I believe you. And like you said, you're going to spend the rest of your life proving it, right?"

" _Every day_ of the rest of my life," Shinichi vowed.

"Then I forgive you, as long as you stay with me. I reserve the right to prank you incessantly over it with little to no complaint on your end, but I forgive you."

Shinichi stilled and a smile crept back onto his face. "You're a bit vindictive, aren't you?"

"I've been dressing up as my murdered father's alter-ego for almost a year seeking vengeance on the people who killed him. Of _course_ I'm vindictive."

Shinichi snorted, and Kaito stifled a yawn. "Okay, you're still in the hospital and you lost a lot of blood less than twenty-four hours ago. Maybe it's time you go back to sleep." Shinichi made to move off the bed, but Kaito instantly did a half-turn and pressed his side into Shinichi, holding him in place with his right hand clutching Shinichi's shirt.

"Nooo, Shin-can~! Don't goooo~!" He demanded, even as another yawn overtook him and his eyes drifted closed. Shinichi was slightly surprised by the childish behavior and nickname, but he found it adorable and endearing all the same, so he smiled and settled himself back onto the cot, Kaito resting against his chest.

"Okay, Kaito. I'll stay. As long as you want me I'll stay."

He'd thought Kaito was already asleep, but was proven wrong when Kaito whispered a sleepy reply. "Forever."

Shinichi smiled and nodded.

 **A/N: I feel like this story is kinda not so good, and I'm just appeasing my own sappy, cliché desires. As a writer I know I'm not supposed to do that, but... Oh well, maybe you guys will still continue to enjoy it anyway? If you are still enjoying it, lemme know! And if not, the next chapter's kinda sappy too, but the ones after that are much better again, so if you can hold on 'till then it'll be fine. ^^;**

 **As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!**


	5. Chapter Five: Miracle

**Chapter Five: Miracle (Alternative Ending)**

 **A/N: This last chapter DOES continue where the previous one left off, but I'm calling it an alternative ending because I have some more chapters for this story I'll be publishing as post-story chapters set in the same AU that disregard the events of this chapter. Just letting you know. ^^**

A nurse walked into the room, intending to check on her patient and perhaps to offer her patient's Soulmate a drink of water. Kuroba Kaito's mate had been there in the hospital room with him since he first arrived and had refused to leave the room for even a moment once they'd let him in.

She wasn't surprised, really, when she walked in the room and saw her patient sleeping soundly in his Soulmate's arms. The messier-haired boy was drooling slightly on the other person, whose arms were wrapped protectively around her patient, not seeming to mind the drool as he stared down at the Kuroba boy with loving, half-lidded eyes.

The wakeful boy noticed her entry after a few moments, belatedly reacting. "Oh. Uh... Hello," he said politely. "Do I have to get off?" His smile quirked downwards a tiny bit, but the nurse shook her head.

"No, it's fine. You two are hardly the first Soulmates I've dealt with, and Kuroba-kun is in well enough shape to have company." The boy blushed at her words. She pretended not to see as she continued to look over Kuroba's charts. "You should be able to take him home tomorrow." She injected some more morphine into Kaito's IV, a small amount, since his injuries weren't too horrible or pain-inducing. She mostly didn't want him to wake up from pain: Sleep was a must-have for patients recovering from such ample blood loss. Even with a transfusion, his body would need a lot of rest to begin functioning properly again and to replenish the extra blood it was now lacking.

"Make sure he sleeps well, even after you take him home. No _strenuous activities,_ alright?" She said with a wink. The boy blushed a dark shade of red, clearly embarrassed.

"I wouldn't... We... We're too young and... I..." He seemed to lose his own words and she laughed lightly.

"Just take care of him."

He nodded vigorously before looking down at the sleeping form in his arms. "Always," he promised, his eyes not once leaving his Soulmate's sleeping face as the nurse strolled back out of the room.

 _'Soulmates,'_ she thought to herself in both exasperation and fondness, glancing down at her own Soul Mark across her right index finger. _"I'd feel better if you kissed me."_ She smiled at the sloppily scrawled brown words.

Soulmates were usually fun patients to have... So long as both of them lived, of course.

….

Kaito was discharged a day later, and Shinichi, true to his word, took him home. Not to the Kuroba home because Shinichi had hired a cleaning crew to clean the blood off the carpet and they wouldn't be done for a couple of days (the cleaning solution had to be applied and allowed to soak several times to properly remove blood from a _white carpet floor_ ). Shinichi took him back to the Kudo manor, Kaito staring up at it with wide eyes as they exited their cab.

"Wow, my Soulmate's rich. I guess I kinda already knew that, but I hadn't really thought about it." He looked over at Shinichi. "Does this mean you can buy me fancy chocolate for Valentine's Day?"

Shinichi scoffed. "I don't know about _Valentine's Day._ For White Day, maybe. You're the one who's gonna get me chocolate for Valentine's."

Kaito laughed. "Oooh, is that so~? And when did we agree to you being the dominant one in this relationship?"

"Dominant? _Hell no._ I know by experience, namely my mother and childhood friend, that the female is the one with the real power in most traditional relationships. Besides, you _did_ sleep in my arms pretty much the whole time you were in the hospital, and as you've said yourself, you're capable of cross-dressing perfectly. You're also the one who's attracted to _shiny things_." Kaito huffed in mock anger as he stepped past Shinichi into the Kudo manor. " _And_ you just walked through the door as I held it open for you."

"That's because I just got out of the hospital. If you'd just gotten out of the hospital I would have held the door open for you," Kaito argued. Shinichi rolled his eyes. "But, I guess you do have a point, since my mom also definitely had all the real power in my family. What that woman wants she _gets_ ," Kaito said with a slight shudder. "She can be down-right terrifying, but I guess that's what one can only expect from the former Phantom Lady."

Shinichi's eyebrows shot up. "The what? Really? That was _your mom?_ " Shinichi had read in an article about speculations people had. Some thought that since the Phantom Lady disappeared right as the Kaitou KID appeared that they'd had a teacher-apprentice relationship. Apparently, that hadn't been the kind of relationship they'd had at all. "You really are a high-class thief, aren't you? You're practically a purebred!"

"That's mean, Shin-chan~! I'm a person! Not a dove or dog or horse or something! Besides, if anything I'd say I'm a purebred _magician,_ not _thief._ I consider myself to be a magician first and foremost, after all, and my mom did use magic in her thievery."

Shinichi nodded. "Yeah, I suppose so." He really just didn't want to argue with his Soulmate. He figured that doing so would be bad for him on multiple levels.

Shinichi led Kaito on a tour around the house before, ultimately, they ended up in Shinichi's bedroom, where Shinichi insisted Kaito lay down and try to rest some more and Kaito only agreed under the condition that Shinichi lay down with him. Shinichi was going to refuse, claiming that he had work to do and that somebody had to make dinner, but upon seeing the now bright, vivid indigo eyes shining up at him, a vibrant color that Shinichi hadn't seen since before he was nine, if ever, the detective found that he couldn't refuse. They curled up in Shinichi's king-sized bed, Kaito tucked once again safely into Shinichi's arms as they both dozed off.

"I love you," Shinichi whispered, and he felt Kaito shiver in his arms.

Kaito frowned and pulled away a tiny bit. "Hey Shinichi, has your Soul Mark ever burnt?"

Shinichi tensed and frowned. "I'm so sorry, Kaito. Yes, it has. Soul Marks burn in pleasure and recognition whenever a person's Soulmate speaks the words that are written there. When you spoke your first words to me, my Soul Mark burned in recognition. It's not supposed to be a painful burn though. It's like the heat of the sun, like soft electricity through my veins. It's _wonderful._ I'm sorry you can't have that Kaito. I'll never say those awful words to you again, and I know that you wouldn't be able to ever enjoy the sensation anyway if I did."

Kaito nodded. "Yeah. I felt that burning too when we first met. It was kinda... Bad and good. Mostly bad," he admitted quietly. "But I already knew most of that. I meant has your mark ever burnt when I _wasn't_ speaking your words to you. Because I think I get the same feeling minus the bad when you say you love me."

Shinichi smiled, his brow knitted in confusion. "It's always nice to know you're loved, but... I'm sorry Kaito. I really doubt it's the same. Soul Marks use real magic for the burn…. Still, I'll tell you I love you as many times as you want." Kaito shivered again at his words, his spine tingling with a pleasurable sensation and the skin on his left forearm feeling hot. Kaito hummed.

"When did they say I was supposed to replace the bandage on my arm? It feels kinda warm. Do you think it's infected?"

Shinichi scowled. "Since they stopped the bleeding and cleaned it up well enough half way through that first day, they didn't need the bandages anymore after that. They said you can take them off whenever you're ready. They only left some on because they thought you wouldn't want one of the first things you saw when you woke up to be the wound, and... And your doctor didn't know if you wanted anyone but him to see your mark, given what it says... If it doesn't feel right though we should take a look." Shinichi sat up and pulled Kaito with him, both of them sitting on the bed.

With careful fingers, Shinichi began unwrapping Kaito's arm. Kaito studied Shinichi's expression through his eyelashes, trying to gauge his reaction, concerned by the guilt that was already showing on Shinichi's face. His Soulmate stopped with just a bit of bandaging left on the arm and looked up at him. "You don't have to look if you don't want to," Shinichi said. "If it were up to me, you'd never see these words again. You've read them too many times as it is. Even once was one time too many."

Kaito shook his head. "I'm hoping it won't be so bad now that I know you don't mean it, and I'll always wonder how I really feel about them now if I don't actually look and see. You don't have to look, either. You'll just be torturing yourself over nothing."

"It's not nothing," Shinichi said firmly. "And I won't look away. I'm here for you, Kaito. I'm with you all the way."

Kaito smiled at him and nodded. Shinichi returned the smile before pulling off the rest of the bandaging.

The two of them gaped. Kaito's arm looked... Not bad. Better than not bad. All the cuts had healed over past the point of average healing, so that not a single scar from them remained on the entirety of Kaito's arm. Even more startling, perhaps, were the words.

Kaito had, so many times in his life, looked at those words and wished that they said almost _anything_ else. He knew for a fact that Shinichi had felt the same way before too. Their recent experience in the hospital sprung to Kaito's mind. In that moment when Shinichi had just finished telling Kaito about himself and properly professing his love, Shinichi's eyes had looked like they wanted nothing more than to be able to change the words and ease Kaito's suffering.

And change, apparently, they had. Kaito remembered feeling a burning sensation at that time, when Shinichi'd said he loved him for the first time in the hospital. Remembered that every time since then the same words had invoked a pleasurable tingling up and down his spine and a burning on his forearm skin. Now he knew why.

There in the same spot, written in the same azure coloring and elegant, cursive handwriting, right where the old, painful words used to be, was a new mark reading _"I love you."_

Shinichi, despite having had a specialist he could consult with about marks and having read everything there was to read about Soul Marks, had _never_ heard of something like this happening before. For a Soul Mark to change words... He hadn't known it was possible! He'd read fictional stories about curses which could alter marks and demons which mixed marks up at birth, but never something like _this,_ and never about anything _real._

Kaito was the first one to react. A broad, genuine smile formed on his lips and he turned to Shinichi, smirking. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I've heard many great things about you~!" Shinichi instantly felt the euphoric tingling that coursed through him when those words were spoken, his Soul Mark heating up in recognition. And as Kaito wrapped his arms around Shinichi and Shinichi instinctively did the same, his shirt ridding up enough to expose his own vibrant, indigo mark, they realized that their Soul Marks were positioned in just such a way that Kaito's pressed firmly against Shinichi's when they wrapped their arms around each other, Kaito's left forearm touching above and behind Shinichi's right hip, directly on his mark. The words burnt pleasurably where they rubbed together. Shinichi smiled back in pure fondness and joy.

"I love you." Kaito shivered once more in response, and Shinichi leant down and firmly locked their lips together. Kaito positively melted against him.

～終わる～

 **A/N: Overly sappy ending. Dang. Why does this happen...? Well, hopefully you guys enjoyed it anyway. That's it for the main story-arc of this AU, but I'll be posting some post-story chapters soon, so stick around if you want to read more about what happens next. Things like Kaito and Shinichi meeting each other's friends/families and how their Soul Marks and Soul-Bond effects their lives even after they've gotten together. These next chapters largely disregard chapter five, so Kaito's Soul Mark will still read: **_"What? NO! I don't want **YOU** as my Soulmate!"_

 **Thanks so much for all the love and reviews this story has gotten so-far! You readers have been great, and I hope you'll stay tuned for the chapters to come. In my opinion, the upcoming chapters, at least the next three, are better than the last few have been. ^^**


	6. Post-Story Chapter: Introduction to Ran

**Post-Story Chapter: Introduction to Ran**

 **A/N: For these post-story add-ons, the last chapter in the main story of this AU did not occur, so Kaito's Soul Mark still reads: **_"What? NO! I don't want **YOU** as my Soulmate!"_

Shinichi and Kaito walked, hand-in-hand, into the little café known as Poirot beneath the Mouri Detective Agency. Kaito appeared to be calm and relaxed, as he always did, shoulders sagging and casual as he strode easily at Shinichi's side, but Shinichi, detective that he was, could see the ever-so-faint furrowing of Kaito's brow, his skin drawn just a slight bit more taught than was natural for him, and the detective knew he was nervous.

"Relax, Kaito, she'll love you because _I_ love you, and she's my best friend. Besides, you're great, so really, there's nothing to worry about."

Kaito chuckled softly. He'd barely met Shinichi a little under a week ago, but after staying with the guy for four days upon his release from the hospital and possibly because Shinichi was a great detective, he could already tell what Kaito was thinking more accurately than anyone else Kaito knew. Maybe it was a testament to the fact they were made for each other, or to how carefully Shinichi observed him at all times, but Kaito found his detective's attentiveness to his feelings endearing.

"I know, Shinichi. I _am_ pretty fantastic." Shinichi rolled his eyes, but didn't reprimand his Soulmate. He knew that Kaito's less humble antics were usually either an attempt to cover up his own lack of confidence, or else his ego was, to Shinichi, justified.

They entered the café and Shinichi quickly spotted Ran sitting in the back corner. Kaito noted her similarities to Aoko physically and visibly relaxed. He knew this girl wasn't, in fact, his childhood friend, but somehow their uncanny resemblance put him at ease. Mouri Ran also had the same kind and understanding eyes Aoko possessed, sparked with a bit of passionate fire, and Kaito felt before even greeting her that they'd get along splendidly. After all, he very much doubted that he _wouldn't_ get along with Shinichi's closest childhood friend. They were practically brother and sister, so Kaito would make sure to do everything he could to appease her and earn her approval.

As it turned out, he'd had her approval long before approaching the table.

"Shinichi!" Ran greeted, springing up from the table to bow politely in greeting to Kaito. "And your Soulmate, oh, finally! You know, Shinichi's been bragging about you since we were little kids, long before he even met you, so it's great that you two finally found each other! My name's Mouri Ran, it's nice to meet you!"

Kaito blinked. "Bragging about me since you were kids?" He sent a lop-sided grin Shinichi's way, making the detective blush slightly and huff.

"Yes, well, even before I met you I knew you'd be polite, and smart, and I knew the color of your eyes at least, so... It felt like enough to be going on at the time, when I was younger, so I'd pretty much made up my mind that you were great by the age of three."

Kaito chuckled and turned his attention back to Ran, snapping his fingers and presenting her with a crisp golden-yellow rose. "The pleasure is mine, Mouri-san. Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire, at your service." He bowed politely and presented her with the rose, which she easily accepted.

"A magician? Wow, I never would have expected an artist to end up with my boring murder-prone little brother, but I'm glad. Shinichi could probably really use a source of magic and brightness in his gloomy life." She laughed and the three of them took their seats. "My best girl-friend Sonoko is going to love you, she's a big magic fan."

A waitress came and took their orders, a coffee for Shinichi, hot chocolate for Kaito, and glass if water for Ran, who'd already had a mocha while she was waiting for them.

Shinichi and Kaito exchanged a look. Kaito was already aware of Suzuki Sonoko, having seen her about at numerous heists, and he wasn't particularly looking forward to meeting her. The only plus-side for him was that she'd already found her Soulmate in the form of one Kyogoku Makoto, and had since stopped obsessing over KID to the degree which she had been before.

"Yes, well, I'm sure I'll meet her eventually," Kaito said politely, angling to change the topic. "So, how much has Shinichi told you about me?"

Ran smiled at the fact that the two of them were already on a first-name basis. There was no reason for them not to be, of course, being Soulmates and all, but she found it adorable all the same.

"Actually, Shinichi hasn't told me much. He just told me yesterday that he found his Soulmate and asked if I wanted to meet you, which of _course_ I did. He refused to tell me anything about you though until we could actually meet, which means I have a lot of questions. Like where did you two meet? You look to be about the same age as Shinichi and me, how old are you exactly? Where do you live? If you lived in Beika you two probably would have met before now because you'd probably go to school with us, so I assume you don't live too close by."

Shinichi rolled his eyes. "You spend too much time around me, you're starting to sound like a detective."

Ran huffed at him. "Excuse me, I _am_ the daughter of the great detective Mouri Kogoro! I inherited my few detective skills from him, not from you. And I'm not nearly as much of a nerd about it as you, either. Now answer my questions, please, I want to know everything!"

Shinichi laughed nervously and prepared to stutter out some made-up way in which he and Kaito could have met. "Ah, yes, well, we met at, um-"

"A heist," Kaito supplied, and Shinichi blinked at him, surprised by his candor. "I'm a Kaitou KID fan, and you know Shinichi went to his first KID heist last weekend, right? Well I was there, and that's how we met. I'm actually friends with Nakamori-keibu's daughter, I'm the Nakamori's next-door neighbor, so I get dragged along to heists every now and again."

Shinichi looked surprised. "What, really? You live _next_ to Nakamori-keibu? Isn't that... Hard?" But Kaito only laughed and waved off his concern.

"Nah, makes things interesting~!"

"But wait, you mean you actually _like_ KID?" Ran asked. "Well, I guess as a magician you would, but doesn't it bother you that he's a criminal? And your Soulmate is a detective, so shouldn't you at least be against KID if Shinichi's trying to catch him?"

Shinichi and Kaito looked at each other again, Shinichi searching Kaito's eyes for answers, looking nervous.

Kaito shrugged. "She _is_ an award-winning karate champion so, in the long run, I think maybe the truth is best, don't you agree?" He asked Shinichi.

"Are you sure?"

"She won't do anything, will she?"

Shinichi shook his head. "No, she wouldn't. If she did it would end our friendship in a heartbeat and she wouldn't do something like that."

Kaito shrugged again. "Then we can tell her. I don't mind. It's not as if she'll be the only person to know, and chances are high she'd find out sooner or later anyway."

Ran was watching the whole exchange with skeptical and slightly worried eyes. She tried to relax before butting in. "Whatever's going on, I wouldn't do anything to hurt Kuroba-kun if it'd hurt Shinichi too. Just tell me the truth and I'll try to understand, but if I knew you were lying to me I don't think I'd trust you to be with Shinichi," she admitted. She looked between the two of them and, regarding the facts she'd already learnt, thought she might know where this was going.

"You can call me Kaito," the magician corrected before nodding at Shinichi. "I think it's best you say it. She's less likely to kill you, right?"

"Er, right..." Shinichi agreed before facing Ran. "Well, Ran, you see, the thing is, Kaito may-"

"Or may not be," Kaito intercepted. Telling Ran the truth didn't mean they had to hand over undeniable evidence or anything, right?

Shinichi nodded in agreement. "Yeah, okay. So Kaito may, or may not, be the... Um, you know. He may be the Kaitou KID."

Ran, the understanding and usually calm-headed girl she was, merely hummed. "Well, that's very... interesting... Wow, Sonoko's _really_ going to love you. Maybe we shouldn't tell her about this though," she said, trying to lighten the mood. She could tell both Shinichi and Kaito were really nervous about divulging this information to her, even if the Kuroba did a rather good job of hiding it.

"God, please, don't. I don't think I could survive having that girl's undivided attention without anything to hide behind!"

Ran chuckled. "Yeah, she can be a bit extreme from time to time. But, Kuro-I mean, Kaito-kun," she reached forward, cupping her hands gently around Kaito's left hand which was resting lightly on the table. "You're Shinichi's Soulmate, so I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. If Shinichi doesn't want to turn you in, then I won't do anything either." Kaito smiled and was about to say something, when Ran's grip on his hand began to tighten. She wasn't doing any serious damage, of course, but _damn that girl had a strong grip!_ "But if you hurt Shinichi, all bets are off, and the police are the last thing you'll have to worry about, okay?"

Kaito's eyes widened and he hastily nodded. "Yes, of course, definitely. Wouldn't dream of it!" He promised, and Ran, still smiling sweetly, let go of his hand. Kaito instantly pulled it back, flexing his fingers, looking slightly terrified, but also highly impressed. "I guess I should be concerned for my own safety, but I'm really just glad that Shinichi has a protective sister like you looking after him, Mouri-san."

"Good!" Ran agreed. "And if I have to call you Kaito-kun then you can call me Ran, okay? Since you two are Soulmates, you're practically my brother too now. We should definitely be on a first-name basis." Ran looked over at Shinichi. "As long as Shinichi's okay with it all, I mean." Shinichi knew that Ran wasn't asking if he was okay with them being on a first-name basis, she was wondering how Shinichi felt about his new Soulmate.

She knew what his answer would be before he gave it though. Since they first entered the café she'd noticed that Shinichi's attention hardly ever left Kaito, and Kaito was likewise trying not to glance at Shinichi every ten seconds and failing. They had that natural attraction of Soulmates that Ran had both seen and experienced first-hand before. Criminal or not, she could already tell that her brother was smitten for Kuroba Kaito and wouldn't be letting him go anytime soon.

And as Suzuki Sonoko's best friend, Ran also didn't mind that Kaito was apparently KID. Her best friend had long since convinced her that KID was, at the very least, not among the worst criminals. Maybe she didn't necessarily think KID was a great or even good person like Sonoko was prone to claiming, but she easily knew that KID was at least nothing like the murderers Shinichi dealt with on a near-daily basis. She supposed Shinichi could have done worse, could have been Soul-Bound to a really nasty criminal because wouldn't that just be his type of luck? To be bound to a murderer or drug-dealer or something? Being bound to KID, she could live with, and Kuroba Kaito seemed nice enough so-far. At the very least, he was equally as head-over-heels for Shinichi as Shinichi was for him, even if he did a better job of at least trying to hide it.

During Ran's inner musings, a period of a few seconds had passed and she realized that Shinichi and Kaito were now apparently quite distracted studying the way their hands fit together under the table. Shinichi was blushing, and Kaito smirked, doing a little wiggly thing with his eyebrows. Shinichi tried to frown, and failed miserably, chuckling instead at the magician's quirky antics and flirtations.

"So," Ran interrupted, dragging them back out of the little world they'd fallen into where only the two of them seemed to exist. As much as she loved seeing her best friend happy and interacting with his Soulmate, she still had questions she wanted to ask. "So you live next to the Inspector who chases you and are best friends with his daughter. That's funny. But you never did answer my question about where you live. Is it far?"

Kaito shook his head. "Not terribly. About an hour's drive away, maybe two by bus, but I have ways of crossing the distance faster."

"Of course you do," Shinichi mumbled under his breath, but Kaito ignored him.

"I live in Ekoda, still in Tokyo, so it's not as if distance will be a real issue for us. And who knows, maybe when we go to University next year I'll just apply wherever Shinichi wants to go? If I even go to college, that is. It's not like I really have much use for it, being the fantastic magician that I am and all. As for how old I am – that was one of the questions you asked right – I'm seventeen, only about half a year younger than the two of you."

"Can you cook?" Kaito had to blink at that question. "Because Shinichi can't cook _at all_ , and he doesn't eat properly if I don't cook and force-feed him, so as his Soulmate I expect you to take over and do that for me."

Kaito laughed and Shinichi blushed, embarrassed. " _Ran-!_ " He would later deny it, but he was whining.

"Well, I'm pretty good at baking," Kaito supplied, "and I'm sure I could learn how to cook properly. Most of the meals I eat are simple, I usually just snack on various fruits and vegetables through-out the day, but I'm sure I can pick up some culinary skills. I just have to follow a recipe, right?"

Ran shook her head. "Yeah, you'd _think_ so, but Shinichi can't cook, even though he can read perfectly fine. I honestly don't know how he ends up burning everything."

Kaito sent Shinichi a mischievous look. "Maybe he does it so you'll have to cook for him."

Shinichi sputtered. "What?! Absolutely not! I wouldn't do that!" Shinichi denied vehemently.

"Could be subconscious," Kaito disagreed, making Shinichi glare daggers at him and Ran laugh.

"Okay, so, you met at one of his heists," she motioned to Kaito subtly with a small wave of her hand, "and Kaito-kun swept Shinichi off his feet with his magic tricks and the charming first-words I know are written as Shinichi's Soul Mark. What was it like for you, Kaito-kun? Was it his snarky personality or something? What'd he say to you?"

Shinichi tensed and frowned, eyes casting downward, but Kaito only smiled, pulling out his best Poker Face and subconsciously pulling a bit at the left sleeve of his long-sleeved shirt. "Oh, I'd pretty much already fallen for him before we even met. There's plenty about him on the internet, you know, and I'd already researched him because I'd heard he was going to be there that night, and I wanted to know how much of a challenge he'd be. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed that night. I'm definitely the kind of person who can appreciate the intellectual types. He knows how to keep me on my toes, makes life interesting, things like that." To Shinichi's surprise, Kaito then pulled up the left sleeve of his shirt, revealing his Soul Mark only... smaller.

"As for my Soul Mark, as you can see, it just says _'What?'_ " Shinichi stared at the expanse of Kaito's left-arm's skin, where he'd covered over the majority of his mark and the scars left by his attempt to cut it off that first night with make-up, leaving only clean-looking skin and one word, the first word, from the original mark: _"What?"_

"Shinichi was surprised to find me that night, hadn't been expecting to hear the words of his Soul Mark being spoken aloud, especially not by me, so I'd kinda dumbfounded him."

Ran rolled her eyes. "Really? He gave you a nice mark and all you gave him was _'What?'_ " She asked in fond exasperation while Shinichi violently cringed at her words.

Kaito barely reacted though, letting out a light laugh that only Shinichi knew was forced. If Shinichi had to guess, he'd say Kaito had been practicing for this. "No, I actually like my mark. It's not easy to dumfound Shinichi, after all, so I'm kinda proud of the moment."

Shinichi's frown deepened, if that was possible, and while Ran was saying "Oh, that's nice," Shinichi was grabbing Kaito by the arm and pulling him up out of his chair.

"Can you excuse us for a moment, Ran? I've got to talk to Kaito about something alone for a minute." He didn't wait for a response before dragging Kaito out the back door of the café and into the alley that stretched along between the buildings around them.

"Shinichi, _I'm sorry_ , I didn't think it-" Kaito instantly began, speaking quickly and sounding slightly hysterical, but Shinichi shook his head.

"No, it's okay, I just…. I wish you'd told me beforehand, you know? I thought we were going to tell Ran the truth is all. I mean, what your Soul Mark says is hardly a bigger secret than your night activities, is it? But, if you don't want to show it to her, that's totally okay. I just…. Can I ask _why_ you don't want to show it to her? I mean, I'll understand if you're just ashamed or you don't want her to think differently of you because of it…."

Kaito jumped to reassure him. "No, no, it's not that. I mean, there are certainly people in the past I've hidden my mark from because I didn't want them to pity me or something, but Ran-chan seems nice enough, and she's practically family to you, so it's okay if you want to show her. I was…. really just more concerned what she'd think of _you,_ I guess. I don't want her to get mad at you." Shinichi cringed. "Not, not that she should, or anything!" Kaito assured. "I just know you feel bad enough about it already without your friends and family also knowing about it. I know you're ashamed of what you said, Shinichi, so I just figured you wouldn't want people to know. We can just pretend it never happened…."

Shinichi sighed. "Remember when you offered to dress as a girl so I could save face and I refused? The same applies here. I don't want to keep secrets any more than necessary. I'd understand if _you_ didn't want to show people, but if your reason for keeping a secret is me then I'd rather just tell people the truth. Especially the people I care about. Yes, they'll probably be mad at me and wonder how I could be such an idiot, but they're not wrong, and in the long run I'll probably need their moral support to remind me that, yeah, it was a mistake, but that I can push past it. I think it's better if we just tell her, and the other people I'm close to, what your mark really says. And I _certainly_ don't want to try to pretend it didn't happen. That would be wrong on a number of levels, so…."

Kaito studied him and, just as Shinichi had always done before, he found that the detective was holding nothing back, making no attempt at hiding his emotions or thoughts. Kaito nodded, sensing the honesty in Shinichi's words. "Okay, we'll tell her, if you think we should."

They went back inside, Kaito no longer pretending to be perfectly happy and charming. He wore a rather neutral expression, Shinichi squeezing his right hand lightly in reassurance as they approached the table and sat down.

Kaito rolled up his left sleeve once more before reaching for one of the napkins that had been delivered with their drinks. He dipped the tip of it into Ran's water, muttering a quiet apology as he did so, before taking the damp cloth to his skin, beginning to rub off the concealer he'd meticulously applied that morning before leaving the house.

Ran looked on in confusion, remaining quiet. Her eyes widened as more words became visible on Kaito's skin, shiny and blue like the first and stretching along towards his wrist. Beneath the glimmering, faintly glowing azure cursive was a litter of alarming white and slightly pink lines, crisscrossing along the skin and paling it, some places leaving it a bit red, and Ran knew they were yet-to-heal cuts that would no doubt leave behind white scars for years to come. The clearly brutal damage to Kaito's skin made her brow furrow in concern. Not comprehending yet the scope of what had happened, she began to read the words which were still clearly legible and neatly written over the expanse of somewhat jagged and puffy skin.

 _"What? NO! I don't want **YOU** as my Soulmate!"_

Ran's mouth opened in a silent gasp and she covered it with one hand, her eyes going wide. She looked up at Kaito, who was pointedly staring at a spot on the wall which met their table, off to their side. Next, she turned her gaze to Shinichi, who was peering forlornly at Kaito's Soul Mark and the litter of healing cuts and jabs around it.

"It's, really not a big deal," Kaito said after several moments of silence, still pointedly staring at the wall, refusing to risk meeting either of their gazes. Shinichi hadn't seen the wound yet either since the morning he found Kaito and called an ambulance. Kaito had taken it upon himself to clean and dress the wound since leaving the hospital and had partially been planning to never let Shinichi see the now ugly and scarred skin, though he knew from the beginning that Shinichi would likely see it someday. "The cuts don't hurt anymore," he didn't mention that they still itched, "and those were really my doing anyway. And I don't care about the words anymore, since I know now that they aren't true." He wished they said something else, of course, but at the very least he told himself vehemently that he didn't care about his mark anymore. He was trying, most of the time, to forget it even existed.

Ran managed to work her mouth closed, dropping her hand and clasping them together in her lap under the table. She stared at Kaito until his eyes finally met hers, and Kaito wasn't sure what he was seeing on her face. A bit of pity, yes, which was to be expected. An apology, it looked like, as if she had to apologize for her spiritual brother's actions. And something else. Concern, maybe? Like she was searching him, trying to see if he was really okay with it all.

Kaito's right hand wove its way into Shinichi's left one, their fingers intertwining, and Shinichi finally looked up from the blue Soul Mark on his Soulmate's skin, glancing between Kaito and Ran's expressions. "I'm fine," Kaito said, and after a moment both Shinichi and Ran seemed to relax a bit. Kaito was damaged, maybe, and hurt, but he did appear to be doing a pretty spectacular job getting over what had happened, and he seemed to be fairly happy with his current status as Shinichi's active Soulmate and love.

Ran nodded a little. "Well, that's good," she commented almost absent-mindedly before standing and walking around to their side of the table.

"What are you-" Shinichi began, looking back over his left shoulder as she came up behind them, sweating nervously. In the blink of an eye he was on the ground, Kaito blinking rapidly in surprise from where he was looking down at his Soulmate, who had just been rather spectacularly flipped through the air to land on his back on the ground, the chair he'd been sitting in toppled over on the ground next to him. Shinichi sucked in a gasp of breath as the air was knocked out of him on the impact before lifting a hand to rub at the back of his head where it'd collided with the linoleum floors of the café.

"Shin-chan!" Kaito gasped, reaching down to help Shinichi back up, the three teens ignoring the other patrons of the café who were now openly staring at them. There were only a couple of other people there anyway, minus the staff on duty, and everyone there was a regular of Poirot's, which meant they knew of the karate champion Mouri Ran who lived upstairs, as well as of her best friend the famous high-school detective, so they were surprised by the scene which had just unfolded before them, but not alarmed.

Ran bowed deeply towards Kaito even as the magician helped his Soulmate back into his chair. "I'm sorry for Shinichi's complete idiocy. Thank you for accepting him as a Soulmate despite the fact that he's a stupid jerk-wad."

"Er, it's fine Ran-chan, really," Kaito assured while Shinichi pulled himself out of his dazed state. "Could you maybe refrain from hurting my Soulmate though?" Kaito asked, looping a protective arm around Shinichi's waist and pulling him close.

Shinichi brushed off Kaito's concern with a wave of his hand, finally catching his lost breath. "No, it's fine, Kaito, I'm not really hurt. Mostly just knocked the wind out of me, and I deserved it."

Ran nodded as she reclaimed her own seat. "Damn straight you did. Honestly Shinichi, I knew you were hopeless, but that's a _horrible_ thing to say when you first meet your Soulmate, no matter who they are!" Shinichi ducked his head in shame, his eyes dropping and refusing to meet her gaze.

"In his defense, he wasn't really thinking at the time," Kaito interrupted, pulling Shinichi close again. "He was surprised is all, and he's really, really sorry. I know he is." Shinichi huffed and blinked because, honestly, now his wronged Soulmate was the one making excuses for him against his best friend? How ridiculous was _that?_

Ran hummed. "If you say so, Kaito-kun. I'm sure Shinichi really didn't mean what he said, but if he ever says anything stupid like that again just come to me and I'll beat some sense into him for you, okay? I meant what I said when I told you that you'd regret it deeply if you hurt Shinichi, but if he's the one who hurts you it's okay to come to me for help and I'll make sure to set him straight, alright?"

Kaito blinked. He knew she was a nice girl, but honestly, now he was starting to think her a Saint. A scary, martial-arts-wielding Saint, but an angel none-the-less.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Kaito agreed, and Ran smiled.

"Good." She looked down at her phone. "Well, I've got to meet up with my parents and Tomoaki soon, so I've gotta go, but we'll talk more about this later, okay? I still want to know everything about you two, I've got more questions, and I'll make sure we can go on a double-date some time with you two and me and my Soulmate."

Shinichi and Kaito stood to see her out of the café and up to her front door, Shinichi paying for their beverages by leaving a few bills on the table as they went. They parted ways with her at her front door, Kaito and Shinichi beginning the walk back to the Kudo Manner.

"Well, I think that went well," Kaito said cheerily. "Nice girl. A lot like Aoko... Which means..." Kaito fell silent, smirking slightly but also looking to be a bit concerned.

"What?" Shinichi asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just... Aoko already knows what my Soul Mark says. If Ran wasn't happy with you, Aoko's _really_ not going to be pleased... How good are you at dodging mops? We should practice before I introduce you."

Shinichi paled.

 **A/N: Extra-long chapter for ya~! Don't know how it got so long, just kinda happened... Oh well. I hope you enjoyed it! Drop me a review if you did? ^^**


	7. Post-Story Chapter: Introduction to Aoko

**Post-Story Chapter: Introduction to Aoko**

 **A/N:** **Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed thus-far~! This chapter, Shinichi meets Aoko. Next chapter is a different little set of events, and after that we should be able to see how the parents arrive on scene. ;)**

Shinichi showed up at Kaito's house at eight in the morning on a Sunday. As grumbly and generally non-pulsed as he was for having to wake up so early on the weekend, he could still appreciate the sight of Kaito when his Soulmate opened his front door. Kaito was dressed in a pair of dark skinny-jeans and a dark purple short-sleeved button-up shirt. Once he was done staring like an idiot, Kaito waiting patiently with raised eyebrows and a smug smirk on his face, Shinichi realized that this was only the second time he'd ever seen Kaito wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Upon closer inspection, he also noted that his Soul Mark was exposed, no make-up or bandages obstructing it from view.

Catching his line of sight, Kaito clarified: "It's alright, we aren't going anywhere public, and like I've told you before, Aoko already knows what my Soul Mark says, so hiding it wouldn't do any good." Kaito stepped off his front porch, closing the door behind him, and began to stroll towards his front gate. Shinichi followed suite.

"If we're not going out in public though, where _are_ we going?"

Kaito didn't respond, instead leading them through the front yard, a short way down the sidewalk, and up to the front door of the Nakamori residence next-door. Kaito didn't even bother to knock, swinging the front door open and announcing loudly to the house at large: "Aoko, I'm here for breakfast and I brought someone with me!" Shinichi paused at the front of the house, surprised by the casual way Kaito barged into the home as if it were his own. When Kaito, noticing that his Soulmate had lagged behind, turned and motioned his detective in with the wave of his hand, Shinichi reluctantly removed his outdoor shoes and took one of the extra pairs of house slippers, murmuring a polite sentence of greeting to no-one in particular as he stepped fully into the house.

A girl looking startlingly similar to Ran emerged from a room down the hall. She was drying her hands with a flour-spotted dish-cloth, which lead Shinichi to believe that she'd just come from the kitchen.

The girl looked like she was going to give a happy greeting until she spotted Shinichi. Her brow twitched in anger and she reached into a near-by closet, pulling out a mop. Shinichi cringed and prepared to dodge, but to his surprise, the inspector's daughter swung at Kaito instead, the magician easily flipping out of her way.

"BaKaito! Why didn't you tell me you were bringing someone over for breakfast?! Now I'll have to re-evaluate the portion sizes!" She huffed as her best friend sprung sideways to avoid another swipe of the mop, cackling as he went and ducking into another room, peering at her from around the doorframe.

"What? I thought you'd want to meet him!"

"Meet who?" Aoko mumbled while Shinichi, looking dumbfounded, added in a "you didn't know I was coming?!"

Aoko turned and faced Shinichi, holding the mop behind her as if to hide it, though Shinichi could still clearly see it where the head of it was sticking out from behind her back, positioned next-to and behind her like a second head with grey, dingy hair.

"I'm sorry you had to see that!" She bowed politely, the mop tilting with her. "My name is Nakamori Aoko, it's nice to meet you! That idiot Kaito didn't tell me he was bringing anyone over, but I'm sure I made enough food for everyone to get a decent portion anyway. Well, he didn't say he was coming over either, but I pretty much expect him every day at this point, so I tend to make extra, and, if anything, I can take some of his breakfast and give it to you."

"Aoko, nooo~!" Kaito whined, but was promptly ignored by his best friend as she continued with the conversation at hand.

"So you're a friend of Kaito's?" She asked, tilting her head in gentle inquiry.

Shinichi nodded and bowed, preparing to introduce himself. He opened his mouth, about to give his name, when he heard it come forth not in his own voice, but instead in ever-so-slightly British-accented Japanese.

"Kudo Shinichi," the tenor commented in surprise as Hakuba Saguru appeared from within the kitchen, just as Aoko had moments before. "I'm surprised to see you here. An interesting turn of events." Kaito came back in the room at that moment, striding over to stand next to Shinichi, crossing his arms, glaring at Hakuba, and overall acting very pouty. Hakuba also came closer, stepping up next to Aoko and draping his arm gently around her waist. Kaito glared harder and Shinichi wondered for a moment if Hakuba could _feel_ the heat being generated from Kaito's fervent gaze. If he could, he didn't let it show. The blond merely smirked. "I certainly wasn't expecting you to _befriend_ him when you called me the other day asking for his contact information. You'll be joining us for breakfast?"

"When did you-?" Kaito began, wondering when it was Shinichi had spoken to Hakuba, but he cut himself off, realizing that Shinichi must have figured out where he lived _somehow_ that morning he called an ambulance to the Kuroba residence.

"C'mon you guys, we can talk while we eat. The food I just made will get cold!" Aoko began towards the kitchen which allowed an open view to the dining room. "You guys go on ahead and sit down while I re-serve the food into an extra portion. What would you like to drink, Kudo-kun?" She asked, turning to him expectantly.

"Water is fine, thank you," Shinichi instantly said, not wanting to trouble her, but Kaito rolled his eyes.

"Relax, Shin-chan, she doesn't mind!" Aoko would have glared at her best friend, but as it was she was too busy gaping at the nickname he referred to Shinichi by. Kaito pretended not to see her stunned reaction. "He'll have coffee. Black." He made a face. "Yeah, I know, _gross,_ but to each his own, I suppose."

Aoko stared for a bit longer before shaking her head and turning to pour a second cup of coffee from an already brewed pot, Hakuba regarding Kaito and Shinichi carefully from where he sat across form them at the table. Kaito pointedly ignored him too, and Shinichi wondered for a moment if Kaito was actually unobservant, or if he just thought things would work out best for him if he pretended to notice less than he actually saw. If he had to place a bet, he'd guess the latter.

"Your dad gonna be joining us?" Kaito asked casually, attempting to change the subject.

Aoko shook her head and huffed, sending him a pointed look. _"No,_ because _somebody_ sent out a new heist notice last night. Dad's at the office still trying to figure it out."

Kaito grinned at her. "Oh, KID sent another notice? I didn't know." Aoko whispered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "of _course_ you didn't" while Kaito turned to look at Hakuba. "If there's a new note, then why are you here? Shouldn't you be off solving it too?"

"Knowing that Nakamori-keibu would be busy today, I figured I should come over for a visit. I wouldn't let my Soulmate eat breakfast alone unless I truly had to," Hakuba commented, smiling in Aoko's direction as she rolled her eyes at him, blushing all the same.

"Did today _have_ to be the day you decided to prioritize Aoko over catching KID? And you probably knew I'd be here too, so she wouldn't have been alone..." Kaito muttered. This statement led Shinichi to deduce that he'd sent the notice last night specifically for the purpose of making sure Hakuba wouldn't be having breakfast with them, a plan which had ultimately backfired. Hakuba's returning smirk also lead him to believe that Hakuba might have known Kaito was trying to get rid of him and had specifically ensured to come to breakfast for the purpose of seeing what the magician had planned. The way they danced around each other almost made Shinichi jealous, but he quickly dismissed the thought by reminding himself that he'd be able to play any number of games with Kaito for the rest of his life, and he was sure Kaito would be more than willing to oblige. His Soulmate seemed the type to enjoy puzzles as much as he did, after all.

Hakuba didn't verbally respond to Kaito's indignation, instead rising from the table to help his apparent Soulmate carry their meals to the table once she'd finished proportioning them. Shinichi wasn't surprised to see that Nakamori Aoko was about as good of a cook as her look-alike, a small bowl of well-prepared white rice with a sunny-side egg draped over the top, a bowl of tofu-soup, and a small plate of cut vegetables being set in front of each of them. She also placed a fresh cup of black coffee before Shinichi and a cup of orange juice in front of Kaito while Hakuba set a cup of lightly-creamed coffee in front of himself and a cup of tea in front of what Shinichi figured was Aoko's place setting. Noting that Hakuba was also drinking coffee and knowing that the inspector's daughter hadn't had to go out of her way to make Shinichi's because she'd already prepared some for the half-Brit, Shinichi relaxed and gratefully took his cup, taking several long sips from it.

Hakuba poked at his egg. "Vegetarian again, hmm?" Hakuba sent a largely neutral look Kaito's way, which Kaito responded to by sticking out his tongue.

"What? You'd prefer sausage, London-no-tantei? Have you ever _seen_ a documentary about how they make that stuff?" Kaito pointed his chopsticks at Hakuba, a gesture which Shinichi thought was both rude and somehow almost friendly. Shinichi had a feeling that Kaito was a bit rude to Aoko and Hakuba only because he knew them and got along with them, and neither of them seemed to mind Kaito's antics, though Hakuba's brow twitched every once in a while. "Just be glad I eat eggs! They're not fertilized, after all, so at least eggs weren't containing anything living at any point."

"You always make vegetarian meals, Nakamori-san?" Shinichi asked, looking to Aoko.

She shrugged. "I guess, for the most part, I do. Unless I know Kaito won't be here or he's done something to annoy me, and I have no problem cutting his portions if he's being rude either." She glared at Kaito in something that looked like anger, but that Shinichi was starting to feel was actually fond exasperation. Kaito rolled his eyes and, looking at his food now, Shinichi noted that Kaito really did have smaller portions than the rest of them, likely because Aoko actually had subsidized Shinichi's own portions with Kaito's, and she knew that if the magician was still hungry afterwards he could eat back at his own house next-door.

"How rude, Aoko, not making enough food for your guests," Kaito teased.

"You're the one who didn't tell me you'd be brining-!"

Kaito ignored her again. "It's alright though! Shin-chan will share with me, won't you?" Kaito poked at a piece of tofu in Shinichi's soup, and an idea struck the detective. He reached out and moved the bowl before Kaito could reach his food and Kaito's eyes widened. He looked at Shinichi, and Shinichi stared back, smirking. Kaito burst out laughing. Shinichi huffed fondly and picked out a few cubes of tofu to place in Kaito's bowl even as the magician was still laughing and trying to hide his smirk behind his glass of orange juice.

"Okay, really, who _are_ you?" Aoko asked suddenly, looking between the two of them, making them pause. "I mean, I'm familiar with your work, Hakuba talks about you all the time. The Detective of the East, right? But how do you, a famous detective, know _Kaito?_ Did you guys meet at, you know, at night, or..." She trailed off, looking at Kaito, but he refused to either confirm nor deny. Shinichi figured she was asking if they met at a heist, and that she knew about KID. She'd probably been convinced by her Soulmate that her best friend was the Kaitou KID some time ago, and she must have made peace with it at least somewhat, but Kaito still refused to straight-out admit to being an internationally wanted thief, possibly because Hakuba was still trying to catch him during heists.

Shinichi waited, figuring it would be best if Kaito explained what they were to each other and decided on the cover story for how they met, but when Kaito didn't respond to Aoko's questions, pointedly eating his breakfast and ignoring the rest of the people at the table, Shinichi realized he might be on his own in this case.

Aoko repeated herself. "Kudo-kun, how do you know Kaito? Because you guys act... Weird..." She was no doubt wondering how a total stranger she'd never met before could be on a first-name basis with her best friend, teasing him and getting along with him as if they'd known each other for years. Kaito had a limited number of people he interacted with on such a friendly basis, and it usually took quite a long time to build that kind of relationship with the guarded magician.

The idea that Shinichi was her friend's Soulmate never even occurred to her since, obviously, she didn't hold out any hope for Kaito ever getting along with his Soulmate, considering what his Soul Mark said.

Shinichi fidgeted under her gaze. "Um, y-yes, Kaito and I met at... At a... At a heist?" He worded it as a question, looking over at Kaito.

Kaito shrugged nonchalantly. "Yup. You know how I'm a KID fan, Aoko. I was at that heist last weekend, trying to catch a glimpse of KID's magic."

"Sure, _that's_ what you were doing there," Hakuba commented sarcastically, but Aoko elbowed him lightly to shut him up, still trying to gather information on what was going on between her best friend and the detective known as Kudo Shinichi.

"…. Does this have anything to do with why you were in the hospital?" Aoko asked quietly, and Kaito tensed, sending her a questioning look. "Your mom called me, Kaito, after she got a call from the hospital. She also told me when you got released, but you didn't come home _for four_ days after you got out. Why didn't you let me take care of you? I know you don't like it when I ask a bunch of questions and pry," her voice had been steadily getting quieter, and she was barely audible at this point, "but Kaito, where _were_ you?"

Kaito was tense underneath his relaxed posture, and Shinichi reached a hand under the table to clasp Kaito's left one soothingly. Kaito glanced over at him. "I was with Shinichi. He took care of me, so there was really no need for you to be worried. I just... got a little hurt last Saturday night is all."

"And Kudo-kun got you to a hospital," Hakuba filled in, looking to Shinichi.

Shinichi nodded. "Yeah. And I just kinda stayed with him once he was in the hospital, and offered to take care of him afterwards. I guess it didn't occur to me that there were other people who would have wanted to know how he was and who would've been better qualified to care for him."

Kaito rolled his eyes. "To be fair, that's because I _wanted_ to go with you, so I didn't mention that Aoko could take care of me. Besides, Aoko's done enough for me as it is. It's _your_ turn to take care of me now." He winked at Shinichi, squeezing his hand more tightly under the table, making the detective blush.

"Well, you still should have talked to me," Aoko insisted, not pushing for more information, knowing that Kaito would only give it when he was ready. She looked at Shinichi. "And thanks for taking care of my idiot. He's like a brother to me, so it means a lot that you took it upon yourself to look after him, even though he's a stranger to you."

Shinichi frowned. "No, no, don't thank me. It's actually my fault he got hurt, so the _least_ I could do was help him out for a few days." Kaito peered at his Soulmate from out the corner of his eye, wanting to refute, but ultimately remaining silent.

Aoko frowned. "How was it your fault?" She asked, and _that_ was the question Kaito had really been dreading.

"It wasn't," Kaito quickly interrupted. "He thinks it's his fault, but it really wasn't, it was mine. At least, my stay in the hospital was my fault."

"No, I really was-" Shinichi began, but stopped when Kaito stared intently at him, as if daring him to go on.

"I don't understand," Aoko admitted. "Kaito, I know you like to dance around the truth, but can you just tell me what's up for once?" Kaito didn't speak, in part because he wasn't especially comfortable having this conversation with Hakuba present, but have it he would, regardless, because Hakuba had already begun to piece things together.

"I think I know what happened, more or less," Hakuba cut in, leaning back and folding his hands on the table in a slightly snobbish, I-know-everything pose. He looked at Aoko. "They're Soulmates."

Aoko's eyes widened and she looked between them, noting for the first time the way they leaned slightly towards each other, just like her and Hakuba tended to do, close enough that their shoulders were touching, as if pulled together by magnets.

"What? But, but Kaito's..." She trailed off, pointedly keeping her eyes locked onto Shinichi's. She knew that Kaito hated it when people stared at his Soul Mark, so she'd long ago taken to pointedly avoiding looking at it, and in return he'd stopped feeling the need to cover it up around her.

Hakuba, as well, knew that Kaito didn't like people looking at, but he knew what it said, had known for quite some time, and he often looked at it. He was just very discreet about it so the magician wouldn't usually notice, so while Aoko hadn't seen the new additions to Kaito's skin, Hakuba had.

"I've deduced that you two did, in fact, meet at last week's heist, and the meeting didn't go well, for obvious reasons." At this Shinichi couldn't help but glance down at Kaito's glowing mark, remembering the words written there, Kaito stiffening slightly in response, but otherwise not reacting. "Afterwards, Kudo-kun regretted the way things went, perhaps you even realized that Kuroba-kun was in trouble, and you called me to frantically ask for his address and phone number. Is that correct?"

Kaito didn't answer, but Shinichi nodded. "I knew he was in trouble because my Soul Mark was fading. It fades whenever he's depressed or badly injured." Kaito looked surprised to hear that.

"It does?"

Hakuba nodded. "Yes, I've heard that Soul Marks do that. I've also seen my fair share of grey marks, as a detective." Upon seeing Aoko's questioning gaze, he clarified "marks which have turned grey because the Soulmate who spoke its words died."

"I didn't know they did that," Kaito admitted.

"That's because you've always avoided reading and talking about Soul Marks like the plague," Aoko murmured, and Kaito couldn't find it in himself to refute the claim.

"Have you seen it... You know, go grey and stuff before?" Kaito asked, looking at Shinichi. "I've never seen my mark do that. Though, to be fair, I do keep it hidden most of the time, so I probably wouldn't have noticed if it had..."

Shinichi shrugged. "It's not as if I'm prone to depression or near-death experiences. I guess there are a couple of times your mark might have dimmed, but for the most part I've had a happy and healthy life." Shinichi forced himself to hold Kaito's gaze, even though he wanted to look away. "And yes, I've seen my mark go dark before. Eight years ago."

Kaito was the one who looked away. "Oh." He slumped back in his chair a bit, avoiding meeting the gaze of the others in the room.

"So," Hakuba continued, bringing them back on topic, "you called me when you realized he was in danger, went to his house, and called for an ambulance. You two talked it out afterwards, I assume, and have worked out your differences?"

Shinichi nodded. "There are still things we can improve upon, but yeah, that pretty much sums it up."

"But how did Kaito get hurt?" Aoko asked, looking to her Soulmate. "You never said."

"Aoko," Kaito spoke up, standing. He motioned to the door. "We should talk about this in private." He stepped out of the room without waiting to see if she'd follow, knowing that she would. She looked at her own Soulmate once more before following her best friend out of the room.

"…. What do you think he'll tell her?" Shinichi wondered aloud. Hakuba regarded him for a moment, calculating, and Shinichi wondered if the half-Brit was of the opinion that Shinichi should be able to figure the answer to that out himself by now.

"He'll tell her the truth. Gently, probably. Aoko and I both know Kaito-kun wouldn't try to kill himself over this, so she'll believe him when he says he only wanted to get rid of the mark and took it too far." That was the first time Shinichi'd heard him call Kaito by his first name. Did he only do that when Kaito wasn't around to hear? "You know that too, don't you?"

"Know what?" Shinichi asked, confused.

"You know that he wasn't trying to kill himself," Hakuba clarified.

Shinichi quickly nodded. "Yeah, yes, I do. I know that. I was worried about it, for a bit, but he doesn't strike me as that kind of person, so it didn't take much for me to figure out that he hadn't actually been attempting suicide. I like to think that maybe he didn't even consider it..."

"I doubt he did," Hakuba agreed. "I just wanted to make sure you knew. Because if you don't actually want to be with Kuroba-kun, it's best you break it off now."

Shinichi started, looking confused and a bit horrified. "What?"

Hakuba sighed. "I understand, as a detective, that it must be hard for you to have an internationally wanted criminal as your Soulmate. Your first words suggest that you've felt that conflicting loyalty between Soul-Bond and your duty as a detective at least once. If you're only staying with Kaito now because you're scared something bad will happen to him if you leave, if you're afraid he won't be able to get over it or that he'll kill himself, then I believe it would be best for you to end it now, for both of your sakes. Before he gets too attached. I don't want to see him hurt, and I know that, in the long run, if you're not fully committed to your relationship, you'll only end up hurting him worse by pretending."

Shinichi considered his words carefully. "Hakuba-kun," he began slowly. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I assure you, I'm not in a relationship with him because of anything other than the reason that I love him." Hakuba continued to regard him unblinkingly, showing no emotion any-which-way. "When I first met him I was caught off-guard and I reacted worse than poorly, but I've wanted to meet my Soulmate for a really long time. I adore the Soul Mark he gave me, and I've known for years that I'd love him when I met him. I forgot, for a minute, when we first met, but it didn't take me long to remember all the times I was feeling down, and looking at my own Soul Mark cheered me up. Actually talking to him and getting to know him has made him all the more incredible to me, and I wouldn't give him up for anything. I _want_ to be with him, and I want to make him happy, too. I promise." He promised, because Shinichi got the feeling that if he hurt Kaito again, Hakuba would _murder_ him in his sleep and make it look like an accident somehow, if the calculating look Hakuba was leveling at him was anything to go by.

Hakuba had been leaning up over the table, staring at him intently, but now he relaxed, leaning back and sighing softly. "Alright, Kudo-kun. But keep in mind that, for all intents and purposes, Kuroba-kun is practically my brother-in-law, crazy as he is and regardless of the fact that he and Aoko aren't actually related by blood, so I'll be watching you closely. Treat him well." He paused. "Maybe not _too_ well, but... I think you understand." Shinichi nodded.

The two detectives sat in silence for a few minutes after that, finishing their breakfast and coffees. After what felt like a very long time, Kaito and Aoko returned, Aoko still rubbing at her red, puffy eyes, clearly having been crying, Kaito rubbing soothingly at her back.

Hakuba stood and hugged his Soulmate. She returned the embrace briefly before pushing him away.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" She insisted. "We talked it all out."

Aoko turned to Shinichi and Shinichi tried not to cringe. Despite the fact that Kaito had previously encouraged him to feel free to dodge Aoko's attacks, Shinichi felt that, at this moment, if Aoko decided to extract some justice on him with a mop, he wouldn't try to dodge or block it. He would deserve it.

"Kaito clearly really, really likes you, so I won't do all the things I think should be done to you." Shinichi relaxed slightly, a shiver running down his spine as he wondered what _things_ she thought he deserved. Before he could blink, a mop was colliding with the side of his head, sending him sprawling onto the floor for the second time in so many days.

"Aokoooo-!" Kaito whined, instantly springing to help Shinichi up. "I thought we talked about this!"

Aoko huffed. "Oh, that isn't _half_ of what I think he deserves," she defended. "And _he_ didn't grow up seeing how that stupid mark affected you!"

Kaito looked like he was going to start an argument with her over it, but Shinichi quickly interrupted, finally managing to scramble onto his feet as his head spun, clutching Kaito and the table to right himself. "It's alright, it's okay, I totally deserved that. My own best friend did something similar when she found out about what I said, so honestly, it's fine. She didn't hit quite so hard, but I think you have more of a right to be angry than she did, so it's really okay." And _wow_ could the inspector's daughter pack a punch! Or a swing, given the circumstances.

Aoko nodded while Kaito grumbled and conceded the argument, helping Shinichi sit back in his chair and rest until his head could stop spinning. "And keep in mind that I'll do much, _much_ worse to you if you ever hurt Kaito again!" She promised, brandishing the mop and pointing it at him like an accusatory finger. "I mean it! You better not forget his birthday or your anniversaries or anything! I know how forgetful you detectives can be!"

Hakuba looked a bit scandalized. "What? I never forget anything! I keep time to the _millisecond,_ I'm _always_ aware of what day it is and the significance of the date."

"But you forget about our scheduled dates!"

"That's only when a case comes up. It's not because I forget..." Hakuba began to defend himself, but gave up on the attempt when Aoko glared at him. "Ah, yes, well, the point remains, Kudo-kun," he looked at Shinichi, "that you should take care to remember all the important things, and to keep Kuroba-kun happy."

Shinichi nodded enthusiastically, making the blurriness which had just begun to clear from his vision return and a headache spring up.

Kaito rolled his eyes. "You guys," he reprimanded, "you're so over-protective." Aoko went to argue, but Kaito ploughed on. "You act like I'm not perfectly capable of castrating somebody on my own."

The room fell silent, Hakuba and Aoko pausing to consider this before nodding and shrugging as they agreed. "I suppose that's a fair point."

Shinichi buried his face in his hands, and Kaito frowned, worrying for a second that maybe they'd taken it too far, but then he realized that Shinichi was laughing, albeit a bit exasperatedly, and he relaxed, chuckling along.

And Shinichi thought _'Oh GOD, what have I gotten myself into?!'_ But, listening to the mirthful, pure, angelic-sounding laugh of Kaito above him assured him that, whatever the mess he was now in, Kaito was no-doubt worth it.

 **A/N: This ended up being about the same length as the last chapter somehow. Essentially: Longer than I'd expected. Haha. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, maybe drop me a review? I do oh so love my lovely reviews. ;D**


	8. Post-Story Chapter: Attuned

**Post-Story Chapter: Attuned**

 **A/N: Sorry this is a couple weeks later than it usually takes me to update. Hope it was worth the wait. Enjoy!**

 _Kaito and Shinichi were sitting across from each other at a little table in a fancy restaurant, the city-scape stretching out below them where it could be seen clearly from the wall-length window next to them. A lit candle was floating in a little vase of water between them on the white-clothed table, two roses neatly intertwined in the vase, one scarlet like passion, the other an icy cyan._

 _Kaito smiled across the table at Shinichi, all batted long dark eye-lashes and messy hair, shiny violet eyes alive with the dancing flame of the golden candle-light._

 _Shinichi returned the smile, his lips tight with the motion, flawless porcelain skin lacking any signs of a flush. Kaito didn't notice the stress of his smile, lost in the curve of his lashes and the azure of his eyes._

 _"Happy one-year anniversary, Shin-chan," Kaito smirked joyfully._

 _Shinichi responded languidly. "Yes. Happy anniversary, Kuroba-kun..." Kaito's smile faltered minusculely at that. Since when had Shinichi stopped calling him by his first name?_

 _Shinichi stared out the window, off into the distance, his face blank and gaze hard. Bored was what Kaito would describe him as in that moment, but surely that couldn't be right. Who was ever bored in the presence of Kuroba Kaito...?_

 _Gnawing at his bottom lip a bit, Kaito decided he had to do something quick. He picked up a white, silky-soft napkin and held it between his hands. Shinichi watched his motions out of the corner of his eye, but didn't turn to give him his full, undivided attention as Kaito so desperately hoped that he would._

 _Determined, Kaito rolled the silken cloth until it was hidden from view within his cupped hands and then, in a fluid and elegant motion, pulled it out into the shape of a perfect, stark-white, pristine rose._

 _Shinichi turned his head to face Kaito once more as Kaito presented him with the rose, but his face was still slack with disinterest. "Thanks," he muttered, taking the rose from his Soulmate's offering hands and placing it casually into the vase between them on the table. It strayed too close to the open flame of the candle, its tips crinkling away like ruffled paper and turning dark brown at the edges before transferring to black, bits of ash drifting down to rest at the top of the water's surface, the edges of the white rose's petals now tattered and burnt._

 _Shinichi didn't notice, back to staring out the window and, Kaito guessed, wishing that he was elsewhere. Kaito frowned, crestfallen for but a moment before his determination returned ten-fold._

 _"Hey, Shinichi, look at this!" He chirped merrily, reaching out for the blue rose. Shinichi turned to observe him once more, face still neutral and hard-set._

 _Hurriedly, hoping to return the excitement to his Shin-chan's face which he'd grown accustomed to seeing over the past year, he clasped the stem of the rose in one hand, disregarding the thorn on its side which pricked his index finger as he held it and made blood trickle down the inner expanse of his palm. His other hand cupped around the top of the rose, enclosing its petals, and when he pulled the flowery portion disappeared, leaving behind a large blue sapphire which, under the light of the moon outside their window, was revealed to be set into a silver band, wrapping around into the shape of a ring. Kaito offered it to Shinichi._

 _"It's the jewel from the first night we met," Kaito informed him, and Shinichi stared at it disinterestedly. He didn't move to accept it._

 _"That jewel's too big to be any good as a ring," he commented monotonously, and once again, Kaito's smile faltered. Outside their table-side window, shining white light down over the city, the full moon waned a little, a sliver of it fading into the black inkiness of the sky surrounding it._

 _"Oh," Kaito sighed. "Yeah, I... I guess you're right."_

 _Shinichi hummed. "Listen, Kuroba-kun, we need to talk."_

 _The moon outside grew a tad darker._

 _"Oh, okay... Then, can I start? Listen, Shinichi, I really love you, and I-"_

 _"I should rephrase," Shinichi interrupted, silencing his Soulmate's words. "I need to talk, and you need to listen." His voice left no room for argument._

 _Kaito held on to the last dredges of his smile, leaning forward in his chair and using the table in front of him for support, attempting to be as close to Shinichi as possible. To inhale his scent, to memorize the curve of his jaw and the spark of intelligence in his eyes. He had a sinking feeling that this would be the last time he'd be allowed near enough to experience such marvels first-hand and up-close, so he wanted to soak it all in, as much as he could, drown in it, so that he could hold on to the fading memory for comfort through his troubles to come._

 _"Kuroba-kun, I'll spare you the speech and say it frankly. We need to go our separate ways."_

 _The light of the moon dissipated by half._

 _And, honestly, didn't Shinichi even care enough to **try** to soften the blow? Kaito **wanted** the speech! He **needed** the "it's not you it's me" and the "we can still be friends". But a "go our separate ways"? That was essentially the equivalent of an "I never want to see you again"! And all Kaito could wonder was **'why?'**_

 _"Shinichi, I-"_

 _Shinichi frowned, and Kaito instantly fell silent. "Just listen, okay? I know what you're going to say. You'll say you love me, and we can work it out. You'll promise to do anything, and you'll ask how I could do something like this to you, tonight of all nights. I know you, Kuroba Kaito." Kaito held his breath, dreading the words which he knew to be coming next. He wanted to stop time; make it stand still. He begged every deity he knew to prevent that which he knew was at this point inevitable. He almost, **almost** wished a dead body would fall next to their table at this moment._

 _But nothing saved him from hearing that which he knew was capable of shattering his soul._

 _"I know you, and **I don't want you.** "_

 _The moon outside dimmed into nothingness, and the shine in Kaito's eyes faded. Staring at the dulled, tear-damp eyes dimming before him, Shinichi knew that if he were to lift his shirt and peer down at his Soul Mark, it would be faded into a matted grey._

 _Kaito's Soul Mark burnt under the words which were simultaneously familiar and foreign, his eyes dropping to the elegant blue cursive upon his skin. Just as he'd felt it once before, his spine tingled in pleasure while every nerve in his body felt the shock of pain which came with the rejection. He'd read the words so many times, had stared at them for hours on end, dreading and fearing and belittling them, but only once before had he heard them. Having heard them now a second time, he couldn't help but wish; **not** to never hear them again, but instead he hoped that he **would** hear them again. If he heard them again one-day in the distant future, it would mean he and Shinichi came together again. That they'd work it out and have the potential for falling apart once more._

 _To never hear them again, at this point, meant that they were final. That Shinichi **meant** them._

 _Shinichi stood, placing some Yen on the table. Kaito didn't bother to look up, his gaze settled on the table, unseeing. He was still, lifeless almost, except by the quivering of his shoulders and spine, testimony to the tears slowly seeping from his hazy, clouded orbs, once a bright violet. Shinichi doubted if they should ever glow again, or if he would ever be able to read the words of his luminous Soul Mark in a darkened room._

 _Kudo Shinichi walked away without another word, and Kaito sat. For minutes, hours, he didn't really know. Only one thought swam through his mind, repeatedly on loop, hypnotizing, so many times that by the end of it all it felt so naturally ingrained into his thought-processes that he felt he would never have a moment where it didn't swim about in the back of his mind, lurking there, or else moving front-and-center, consuming his every contemplation._

 _Only one thought:_

 ** _'He doesn't want me because I'm worthless.'_**

 **...**

Kaito started awake, gasping for breath, that one thought still swarming through his sleep-addled mind on repeat, his eyes hazy and pain-filled. Tears streaked down his salt-rosy cheeks and he curled in on himself, breaths coming out in shudders and sobs, pulling his knees up to his chest.

It took him five minutes to realize that it was just a dream. His head jerked up and he looked around, peering about his dark bedroom. It _was_ a dream... wasn't it? He could see the icy blue words of his Soul Mark glowing on his skin, could read the words clearly in the shadowy bedroom. Heck, he _thought_ he could feel the lingering sensation of burning on his mark, the burn he'd felt when he first heard those words spoken, pleasurable in an entirely undesired way and painful on numerous levels.

Was it a dream, or wasn't it? He thought it was, but the quivering racking up and down his entire body and the sting of emotions and hurt coursing through him felt entirely too real. Was it real? Had he passed out at the restaurant and someone returned him to his room? Had he walked home in a daze? How long had he known Shinichi; two weeks or a year? Reality and illusion had always been concepts which, as a magician, he tried to blur the lines between, to make one feel more like the other and vise-versa, but he _very much_ wanted to be able to distinguish between what was reality and what wasn't at the moment.

Blindly, he reached for his phone that he kept on his bed-side table. He tried not to stare at the glowing azure cursive of his Soul Mark as his left hand felt blindly for his mobile. When his fingers finally clamped around cool plastic, metal and glass, he jerked the phone towards himself, movements still rigid and shivers continuously racking through him.

He searched through his contacts for Shinichi's number, having to swipe multiple times at his eyes so he could see, his vision too blurred with salty tears otherwise. When he finally managed to press the right buttons and ended up at Shinichi's number, he hesitated.

If it _had_ been real, if Shinichi _had_ broken up with him, Kaito obviously couldn't just _call_ him, right? He couldn't do that, couldn't stand to hear Shinichi's annoyed voice or displeased regard to him. But at the same time, if it wasn't real he'd like to know as soon as possible so that he could stop feeling as if his soul was being dragged aggressively over a cheese-grater, so...

Kaito went to press the call button... and hesitated again. He sat there, lingering over the button for several long minutes (possibly hours, he couldn't even tell at that point) until, finally, he threw his phone down on the bed next to him, curled up on his side under his covers, and sobbed uncontrollably. Because honestly, who was he kidding? Of _course_ Shinichi didn't want him! He'd been entirely convinced of it when he'd woken up none-too-long ago, and that same thought was still lingering, replaying itself over and over again, integrated until it was verbally forced out of him.

 _"He doesn't want me 'cause I'm worthless."_ He curled into himself more tightly, his heart constricting and making him wrap in closer, whimpers escaping him.

Soft, hurried footsteps padded against the floors, Kaito barely registering them. Was he moving? He didn't think so...

Warm, sturdy arms lifted him, and suddenly he was engulfed in warmth and comfort. Kaito gasped and wiggled, feeling the arms constrict around him. He looked up to see Shinichi's worried and serious, determined face peering down at him. Kaito was sitting in his Soulmate's lap, wrapped in his covers and Shinichi's arms, tucked safely against Shinichi's chest.

"S-Shinichi?" Was this real? Kaito wasn't sure. It... God, it _felt_ real... Could a dream really so precisely capture how soft Shinichi's hair was when it brushed against Kaito's temple? Could a dream re-create the scent of pine needles and dark coffee _this_ accurately...? Could his memory, eidetic though it may be, serve him so exceptionally well?

Shinichi was still watching him, his gaze intense and steady. He lifted a hand and cupped the side of Kaito's face, forcing them to maintain eye contact.

"You. Are. **Not.** _Worthless."_ His words were slow and deliberate, and filled with as much truth as the detective could muster. He leaned in and pressed his lips to Kaito's forehead, soon pulling back just enough to speak, his lips brushing against Kaito's clammy skin as he murmured clearly. "I want you. I'm sorry Kaito. I'm so sorry. I _want you_. I'll _always_ want you, I _promise_." He swiped his thumb under Kaito's eyes, wiping away his Soulmate's tears. "Please don't cry."

Kaito shuddered as Shinichi's breath ghosted over his face and he buried in deeper against Shinichi's chest, clutching at his already wrinkled shirt. He nodded against his Soulmate's sternum, trying to reign in his tremors.

After a few minutes of Shinichi patiently comforting his Soulmate, Kaito finally pulled back enough to speak, his voice only slightly trembling.

"N-not that I'm not glad, or, or anything, but... What're you doing here, Shinichi?"

Shinichi shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We can talk about it later. What happened, Kaito?"

Kaito shivered. "It's nothing, I just... Had a stupid dream is all. You... We met less than two weeks ago, right?"

Shinichi nodded slowly. "…. Yes..." The detective really didn't know what that had to do with anything.

Kaito only nodded. "Yeah, I kinda figured when you showed up. Then it was just a dream."

"…. Do you want to talk about it?" Shinichi asked, and Kaito shook his head.

"No, It's fine. I'll get over it. It wasn't real, so it's not important. I'm just overreacting."

Shinichi blushed a little. "I... I doubt you're overreacting. It looks like it must have been pretty bad, and... I kinda rushed all the way over here because I had a nightmare too, so..."

Kaito frowned and looked up at him, concern written all over his face, swiping away his previous troubles in favor of focusing on Shinichi's. "Really? Are you okay? Do _you_ wanna talk about it? What happened?"

Shinichi _did_ want to talk about it, and he hoped that telling Kaito about his own dream and reaction would help Kaito open up about his, so Shinichi nodded, shifting so that he was sitting more comfortably, back propped against the wall as he kept Kaito situated in his lap.

"I had a nightmare that I... That I was breaking up with you. And I told you that I didn't want you again. God, it was _horrible._ I wanted to stop, to tell you that I didn't mean it, but I couldn't control myself. It was like somebody else was controlling me, and no matter how hard I fought I couldn't regain control of myself and comfort you. You looked so heartbroken, and that made _me_ feel horrible, too. I couldn't stand seeing you like that, so you can imagine my surprise when I got here and found you actually crying." Shinichi pressed a kiss against Kaito's messy hair, his hold tightening as if to reassure himself that Kaito was there with him, and Kaito didn't speak. "I came over because I needed to tell you that I love you, to see you and know you're okay. I thought about calling you, but I didn't just want to talk to you. I needed to see you, I guess, so... Yeah. If anyone's overreacting to a nightmare it's probably me."

Kaito was silent for a while. "Huh," he finally hummed, sounding vaguely intrigued. "Now isn't _that_ peculiar."

"What is?" Shinichi asked.

"…. My nightmare was like that, too. You... You broke up with me, and told me you didn't want me. And, I just thought you meant it. In your dream, you really couldn't control anything?"

Shinichi nodded. "Yeah. It was terrifying." Shinichi sighed and laughed a bit, breathily. "So we essentially had the same nightmare?"

Kaito shrugged. "I... I guess we did. Or really similar ones, anyway. Think it's just a coincidence because we have similar fears, or some kind of Soulmate-telepathy?" He sounded like he was only half-joking.

Shinichi shrugged. "Most likely we just have related fears, but I suppose it's not _impossible_ that our connection is responsible. Soul Marks are real magic, after all, and even across a distance Soul Marks can react to the emotions of Soulmates, like how my mark reacts to your emotional and physical state, and Soulmates are naturally drawn to each other after their initial meeting too. I'd say synching up our dreams could, theoretically, fit within the abilities of a Soul-Bond. But it's still more likely that we have similar fears."

Kaito snorted, his shivers having finally completely receded and the tear tracks on his face having dried. "Kill-joy," he commented jokingly, and Shinichi chuckled. They sat in a comfortable silence for some time, Kaito beginning to doze off in Shinichi's embrace while Shinichi contemplated their situation.

"Hey Kaito?" The magician hummed in inquiry, but didn't otherwise respond. "You and I will be finished with high school in a few months. Once we're out, do you want to move in with me? My house is plenty big enough, after all, and my parents bought a permeant residence in Las Vegas they're planning to call their new official address, so the Kudo place is practically mine now anyway."

Kaito's eyes were closed, but he still managed to quirk an eyebrow, one eye opening slightly. "Why?"

Shinichi had half-expected a quick yes from his Soulmate, but he tried not to let the lack of an immediate response in affirmation dissuade him. "It's just, if you have more nightmares, I'd really like to be there, you know? And... Yeah. That's the main reason, I guess. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to be able to see you more often."

Kaito nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that too, but there's just one little problem."

Shinichi frowned. "What?" Kaito laughed because Shinichi sounded kind of a bit like a petulant child who'd just been denied something they wanted.

"My KID-lair is here."

Shinichi blanched. "Your what now?"

Kaito laughed again, and God, was Shinichi glad that Kaito was a mirthful kind of person because he could listen to Kaito laugh all day and not get tired of it, especially while Kaito was still in his half-sleeping daze, all relaxed and easy-going and effortlessly beautiful….

"Yeah, there's a whole secret lair in this house." He waved, gesturing non-specifically towards the other side of his room. "Behind dad's painting." Kaito stilled, tensing a little as he thought about his father, but he soon relaxed again, smiling fondly. "Dad was old-fashioned, loved the classics. Had a whole bad-guy lair made in our secret basement and everything. All the KID supplies are down there."

"Well... How big is it?" Shinichi asked.

"There's a car down there."

"A _car?_ " Shinichi asked, flabbergasted. _"How?"_

Kaito shook his finger at him. "Magicians have to protect their secrets, you know~! You're just lucky you're my Soulmate, otherwise I wouldn't have told you about my secret lair at all. Still, the point remains that it'd be difficult for me to move in with you. I don't have too many personal effects I'd have to take with me, but my magic tricks require a lot of supplies, and it's not just the supplies I keep down there. There's lab equipment too, for creating my gas and smoke bombs and stuff, and machinery for making gadgets, tools of the trade. Lots of stuff that'd be difficult to move without anyone noticing and that can't just be put in a random room at Kudo Manor, you know?"

Shinichi hummed. "Well, my next-door neighbor happens to be an inventor who uses a lot of lab equipment, and who blows up part of his house every month or so, so he's made himself devices which help him fix his house himself. He's trustworthy: We don't have to tell him about KID being involved, but if I told him I needed help making a secret room and moving some equipment, I'm confident he'd be able and willing to do it."

Kaito actually pried his eyes open at this point, peering up at his Soulmate. "You'd build a large, _expensive,_ secret room in your family home, just so I could move in with you?"

Shinichi nodded. "Yeah, of course I would. And it wouldn't be that expensive, since my neighbor knows how to do most things efficiently using his devices, and he's creative and effective with what he does."

"Except when stuff blows up," Kaito pointed out.

"Erm, well, yes. But I'm sure he'd be extra careful to check everything over and plan it out since he'd know someone could get hurt if anything went wrong, and your equipment itself would just be moved from here, so it's not like any of that would go bad. Besides, he usually only uses inventions with other people that he's already tested to the point of making sure that it works correctly. That's why his house blows up in the first place; he's testing things until the point at which he's sure it won't go wrong. He's the kind of person who does everything he can to safely help others, and he's known my parents since before I was born, so I'm sure he'd help me no-questions-asked if I told him it was important, and he'd do a good job of it."

Kaito nodded. "Okay, alright. If we can get it to work, then sure, I'll move in with you. I have someone like that too, a person who knew my parents and helps me out, who'll probably have a few ideas about how we can discreetly move the equipment. I'll have to introduce you to him sometime."

Shinichi nodded and smiled, already excited about being able to have Kaito actually move to his house in a few months' time.

Satisfied with his thoughts for the night, Shinichi shifted until he was laying down, Kaito no longer in his lap, but rather pressed into his side as they lay next to each other on the mattress, his arms still looping around Kaito's back.

"G'night, Shin'chi," Kaito muttered, his voice already drooping back into its sleepy slurs.

"Goodnight Kaito," Shinichi reciprocated, nuzzling against Kaito's soft, ever-messy mop of hair. "I love you."

Both Soulmates slept soundly for the remainder of the night.

 **A/N: ****Kinda wordy or something, but whatever, I write what I want! Hopefully you liked it anyway. If you did, drop me a review, yeah? I'll probably get back to them meeting each other's friends and family in the next chapter. 'Till then, thanks for reading~!**


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